Artemis 3

Artemis II is a ten-day lunar flyby mission that launched on April 1, 2026. With a crew of four astronauts, it is the first crewed flight of the NASA-led Artemis program and the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Artemis II is the second flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) and the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity by the crew.

Japan's first lunar lander — made Japan the fifth nation to soft-land on the Moon. Achieved a precision landing within 55 m of its target despite toppling on touchdown. Survived three lunar nights before final contact was lost.

Artemis I, formerly Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis I marked the agency's return to lunar exploration after the conclusion of the Apollo program nearly five decades earlier. It was the first integrated flight test of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and its main objective was to test the Orion spacecraft, especially its heat shield, in preparation for subsequent Artemis missions. These missions seek to reestablish a human presence on the Moon and demonstrate technologies and business approaches needed for future scientific studies, including exploration of Mars.