Nasa plans first crewed Moon mission in 50 years for February 2026

Nasa says it hopes to send astronauts on a ten-day journey around the Moon as early as February 2026. The agency had previously committed to a launch no later than the end of April but now aims to bring the mission forward.

It has been half a century since astronauts last travelled on a lunar mission. Artemis II will send four crew members to orbit the Moon and return, testing critical systems along the way, reports BBC.

The flight is the second mission of Nasa's Artemis programme, which aims not only to return astronauts to the lunar surface but also to establish a long-term presence there.

"This will be an important moment in human space exploration," said Lakiesha Hawkins, Nasa's acting deputy associate administrator. "We all have a front row seat to history." She added that while the earliest launch window opens on 5 February, safety remains the top priority.

Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson noted that the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket was "pretty much stacked and ready to go." The main tasks left are finishing the Orion crew capsule and completing final ground tests.

Artemis I, an uncrewed test flight in November 2022, lasted 25 days and successfully circled the Moon before re-entering Earth's atmosphere. Despite minor heatshield issues, Nasa says those problems have been resolved.

Artemis II will carry Nasa astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. They won't land, but will be the first crew to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

"They're going at least 5,000 nautical miles (9,200 km) beyond the Moon—further into space than anyone has gone before," explained Jeff Radigan, Artemis II's lead flight director.

The mission's goal is to test the spacecraft and rocket systems in preparation for a crewed landing. Orion will launch atop SLS, propelled by solid rocket boosters and a massive core stage. Once in orbit, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion System (ICPS) will help raise Orion into higher Earth orbit before a systems check and a "space ballet" manoeuvre to rehearse docking procedures.

A day later, Orion's service module will fire for a Translunar Injection, sending the capsule on a four-day journey more than 230,000 miles from Earth. During the flight, astronauts will run system checks and take part in experiments. Scientists will study organoids—mini tissue samples grown from their blood—before and after the mission to better understand the effects of microgravity and radiation.

After slingshotting around the Moon, Orion will return on a four-day trip to Earth. The service module will detach before re-entry, leaving the crew module to survive the fiery plunge through the atmosphere and parachute into the Pacific Ocean off California.

The mission's outcome will shape the schedule for Artemis III, which aims to land astronauts on the Moon. Nasa has said this won't happen before mid-2027. But experts, including Dr Simeon Barber of the Open University, warn that even that date is optimistic, given the costs and the reliance on SpaceX's Starship, which has yet to prove it can reach orbit—let alone carry astronauts to the lunar surface.