Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
After decades of development and false starts, NASA on April 1 launched the first crew in more than 50 years on a mission to leave Earth orbit and travel to the vicinity of the Moon.
The agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket—flying for just the second time—lifted off at 6:35 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B, kicking off a planned series of flights in the newly revamped Artemis lunar exploration initiative.
Strapped inside the Orion spacecraft atop the SLS were veteran NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and rookie flyer Jeremy Hansen, with the Canadian Space Agency.
“We really are going for all, by all,” Wiseman, the mission commander, told reporters before launch. “We want to take the whole world along with us.”
The primary goal of the mission is to check out the Orion spacecraft’s environmental control and life support system, avionics and other equipment, and to validate the performance of ground and flight systems needed for a long-term lunar campaign, including emergency operations and procedures.
For this article and much more, subscribe to the magazine here: sub.aviationweek.com/aviation-week-space-technology-auto-subscribe?p=W5EPICKS
After decades of development and false starts, NASA on April 1 launched the first crew in more than 50 years on a mission to leave Earth orbit and travel to the vicinity of the Moon.
The agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket—flying for just the second time—lifted off at 6:35 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B, kicking off a planned series of flights in the newly revamped Artemis lunar exploration initiative.
Strapped inside the Orion spacecraft atop the SLS were veteran NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and rookie flyer Jeremy Hansen, with the Canadian Space Agency.
“We really are going for all, by all,” Wiseman, the mission commander, told reporters before launch. “We want to take the whole world along with us.”
The primary goal of the mission is to check out the Orion spacecraft’s environmental control and life support system, avionics and other equipment, and to validate the performance of ground and flight systems needed for a long-term lunar campaign, including emergency operations and procedures.
For this article and much more, subscribe to the magazine here: sub.aviationweek.com/aviation-week-space-technology-auto-subscribe?p=W5EPICKS
