CAPE CANAVERAL, April 3, 2026
The four-person crew of NASA's Artemis 2 mission has successfully left Earth's orbit and is now traveling toward the Moon, marking humanity's first lunar voyage in over 50 years. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, one of the crew members, celebrated the milestone, stating in German: *"Die Menschheit hat einmal mehr gezeigt, wozu wir fähig sind"* ("Humanity has once again shown what we are capable of"). Hansen is joined by NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, and Victor Glover on the historic mission. The spacecraft departed from Florida, where NASA's Kennedy Space Center serves as the primary launch site for Artemis missions. The crew's trajectory will take them on a lunar flyby before returning to Earth, testing systems for future Moon landings. Artemis 2 follows the uncrewed Artemis 1 test flight, which orbited the Moon in late 2022. The program aims to establish a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface by the end of the decade.