Artemis II launch LIVE: NASA prepares for Wednesday launch of historic space mission

Apollo 17 commander Eugene ‘Gene’ Cernan stands on the moon on Dec. 14, 1972 (Image credit: NASA/Donaldson Collection via Getty Images)

The last person to step foot on the moon was Gene Cernan, the commander of NASA’s Apollo 17 mission. Cernan, the last of 12 humans to walk on the moon, left humanity’s final bootprint on the lunar surface on December 14, 1972.

And while Artemis II does mark NASA’s return to the moon, the mission more closely takes after the Dec. 21, 1968’s Apollo 8 mission, which sent three NASA astronauts on a six-day trip around the moon. Much like Artemis II, Apollo 8 was a key step in testing flight systems and trajectories before attempting a lunar landing.

Ben Turner

NASA plans to soon begin construction of a permanent lunar base. (Image credit: NASA)

This is the first time in more than 50 years that NASA is sending humans to the moon, having famously taken 12 astronauts to the lunar surface as part of the Apollo missions that ran between 1969 and 1972.

But that doesn’t mean redoing something it achieved decades ago is straightforward. Space travel is a difficult endeavour that comes with substantial risks, and the moon remains a hard target even in 2026.

The 12 steps of the Artemis II mission and the pathway that the Orion spacecraft will take as it slingshots around the moon. (Image credit: John Strike for Live Science)

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander (left), Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot (center left), Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist (center right), and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II mission specialist (right) pose in front of NASA’s Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft on March 30, 2026  (Image credit: Getty Images)

It took a while to get here, but after repeated delays, NASA says the Artemis II mission is finally ready to launch. Besides being NASA’s first step to a long-awaited return to the moon’s surface, the mission is set to achieve a number of firsts: Its crew contains the first Black astronaut, the first woman, and the first non-American to visit the moon.

The crew will smash several longstanding records too. For example, they will return to Earth as the fastest humans in history, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean after reentering our planet’s atmosphere at slightly over 25,000 mph (40,200 km/h), which would beat the 1969 reentry record currently held by the Apollo 10 astronauts.

The Artemis II rocket stands on a launch pad at sunrise at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on March 24, 2026 (Image credit: Gregg Newton / AFP via Getty Images)