NASA sets historic date for returning Americans to the moon after 53 years

NASA has announced that America is just weeks away from making a historic return to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

The earliest Artemis II mission, the first human mission to the moon since 1972, will launch on February 6, the space agency announced Tuesday.

NASA officials stated that Artemis II’s official launch window will remain open from January 31 to February 14, and various alternative dates will also be selected.

The mission will take NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the moon and back to Earth.

The Artemis II mission will not land on the moon’s surface. The first lunar landing in the Artemis program is planned for Artemis III and is currently scheduled to occur in 2027.

Artemis II cannot be launched on any day. Timing will depend on precise orbital mechanics such as the position of the Earth and Moon, rocket performance and weather conditions near the launch site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

February 7, 8, 10, and 11 were selected as potential backup launch dates. If February’s launch is anything to go by, NASA has also chosen early March and April for the upcoming moon mission.

Artemis II will be the first space mission to go beyond low Earth orbit with a human crew in 53 years.

NASA’s new moon rocket took off from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 16, 2022. This was the first test fight of the Artemis program.

As early as February 6, astronauts will launch from Cape Canaveral aboard an Orion spacecraft carried by NASA’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket system.

They will first orbit the Earth several times to test life support equipment and then head to the Moon for a flyby of the Moon, a flyby without orbiting or landing.

The spacecraft will return to Earth in a ‘free return orbit’ using the Moon’s gravity, meaning if something goes wrong it will be able to return safely without extra use of its engines.

The main goal of the mission will be to prove that the rocket, spacecraft and systems work perfectly when humans are present, thus paving the way for the landing of Artemis III next year.

NASA has less than a week left for the first phase of this historic event, which will begin on January 17.

The fully stacked SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft are planned to be ‘spread out’ from NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center.

It’s a four-mile journey that uses a giant crawler carrier to transport the rocket and can take up to 12 hours to complete.

Once at the site, teams will connect power and fuel lines and conduct final rocket tests before astronauts begin pacing for flight.

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, which will carry the Artemis II spacecraft, is seen in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Once Artemis II hits the launch pad, NASA teams will go through what’s called a “wet dress rehearsal” and “tanking” procedure.

They will load the SLS rocket with over 700,000 gallons of supercold liquid hydrogen and oxygen, which act as propellant to ignite the vehicle and launch it into space.

NASA will even do a mock countdown to launch, practicing holding and restarting, and then safely draining fuel tanks until it’s time for the actual launch.

The rehearsal tests the space agency’s fueling procedures and helps check for any problems with the rocket, such as leaks in the rocket tanks or valves.

If any problems are detected, NASA will likely need to conduct multiple rehearsals and possibly delay the launch.

In September 2025, former NASA Administrator Sean Duffy publicly announced that “about a year and a half after” the Artemis II mission, the Artemis III astronaut mission “will land on the moon led by America and establish a long-term habitation presence.”

He went on to say that what astronauts learn from renewed Moon missions will help future efforts to ‘put American boots on Mars’.