OVER THE MOON: NASA Artemis II Crew in Final Phase of Preparation for First Lunar Mission in Over Half a Century

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The final stretch before lift-off.Since 1972, no human being has orbited or set foot on the moon. And now, after much to-and-fro, it seems like the time has come to return to our natural satellite.The four Artemis II astronauts arrived in Florida today (27), in the final phase of preparations for the historic mission.LIVE: Our Artemis II crew is arriving at @NASAKennedy! Tune in as they talk about their upcoming mission around the Moon. https://t.co/Jt8eyFIkuj— NASA (@NASA) March 27, 2026Reuters reported:“NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, are set to launch from Kennedy Space Center as soon as April 1 aboard NASA’s towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, riding inside an Orion crew capsule built to carry humans into deep space. The roughly 10-day mission will ​send the crew on a high-speed loop around the Moon and back.”“Artemis II will be ⁠the first crewed mission of NASA’s multi-billion-dollar Artemis program. While it will not attempt a moon landing, it will send astronauts farther from ​Earth than any previous human spaceflight, testing the Orion spacecraft’s life-support systems, navigation, communications, and heat shield performance.”Introducing the Moon Mascot for the Artemis II mission!The zero gravity indicator for the Moonbound crew was selected from thousands of submissions from over 50 countries and is named “Rise.” The design was inspired by the iconic Earthrise moment from the Apollo 8 mission. pic.twitter.com/5g2B0I6BDn— NASA (@NASA) March 27, 2026The crew has trained for more than ​two years, and have been in quarantine at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston since March 18.Now they will move into NASA’s Astronaut Crew Quarters in Florida until the launch.In just a few days, we’ll be sending humans on a flight around the Moon. Have you watched our documentary series on the mission?Watch Moonbound before Artemis II lifts off: https://t.co/ZR60WWIumd pic.twitter.com/fU6aGDE277— NASA (@NASA) March 27, 2026Read more:Highly Maneuverable Chinese Spaceplane Touches Down After 276 Days in Orbit – Craft Docked Several Times With Another Object – May Be Used as Weapon to Target US Satellites/*! This file is auto-generated */!function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i