By: Isaac Kwabena Boadu Date: 2nd April, 2026
NASA is poised to send four astronauts on a groundbreaking mission to the Moon’s orbit, marking the first crewed lunar expedition in over 50 years. Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch will embark on the Artemis II mission, set to launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 18:24 local time (23:24 BST). The 10-day journey aims to pave the way for a future lunar landing.
The crew will be the first humans to fly on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft, testing critical systems for future missions. Artemis II follows the successful uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, which demonstrated the SLS and Orion’s capabilities. The next steps include Artemis III, initially planned as a lunar landing, now rescheduled for 2027 as a docking test in low-Earth orbit.
The Artemis program marks NASA’s renewed focus on lunar exploration, with ambitions to build a lunar base and return humans to the Moon’s surface by 2028. The mission’s success will depend on the development of lunar landers by SpaceX and Blue Origin, with the selected partner to be announced soon. The Artemis II crew’s journey will take them further from Earth than anyone has been before, promising new insights into the lunar environment and paving the way for future exploration.
AFRICAN VOICES INTERNATIONAL, FREEDOM IN AFRICA
