NASA and its contractors are in a sprint to prepare rockets, spacecraft and suits to land astronauts on the moon in 2028.

Reid Wiseman says Artemis 2 showed a crewed moon landing is closer than expected, as NASA prepares for Artemis 3 and future lunar missions.

"It's 13 minutes of things that have to go right," NASA said of the reentry and splashdown, the first with astronauts from the moon in over 50 years.

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. NASA is going back to the moon more than a half ...

After a trip back out to the launch pad, NASA's Artemis II rocket will be readied for a historic flight to the moon.

The Artemis program was officially named and announced by NASA in May 2019, when Artemis III was intended to land “the first woman and next man” on the lunar South Pole in 2024. Since then, the uncrewed Artemis I test flight launched in 2022, and Artemis II is complete.

April 1 may have been April Fool’s Day, but a few other things were going on. NASA launched Artemis II, the first mission to the moon in more than 50 years, sending four astronauts on the ride of a lifetime. The full pink moon lit up the night sky with a dazzling display just hours before the launch to the far side of the moon.