NASA announced updates to the Artemis program, including phased lunar landings, increased commercial involvement, and new nuclear propulsion missions to support sustainable Moon operations.

People may know Artemis as NASA’s return-to-the-Moon program. However, it is much more than a rerun of Project Apollo.

"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.

Like the US, China is seeking allies to boost its lunar ambitions. Russia, South Africa, Pakistan, Egypt, Serbia, Belarus and Azerbaijan are among the countries that have backed its plan for an international lunar research station. China also has said it wants to launch crewed missions to Mars and build a permanently inhabited base there.

Tonight, four astronauts will strap into a capsule on Florida's Space Coast and do something no human has done since 1972, leave Earth's orbit and head toward the Moon. NASA's Artemis II mission, targeting liftoff at 6:24 p.

America’s last lunar venture went down in February 2024, when the US landed an unmanned lunar spacecraft called Odysseus near the moon’s south pole; its first in 50 years. Odysseus carried six NASA experiments and six commercial items, including a Jeff Koons sculpture.

The Artemis II crew broke the record for the farthest distance from Earth that any human crew has ever traveled.

The Artemis II crew got the green light to bring iPhone 17s aboard the spacecraft months ago and had them in hand during their pre-flight quarantine. Smartphones have left Earth's orbit before, including on the 2021 Inspiration4 SpaceX flight and the last mission of the American Space Shuttle program.