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.

Four astronauts embarked on a high-stakes flight around the moon Wednesday in the Artemis II. It's humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century and the thrilling leadoff in NASA’s push toward a landing in two years.

While Apollo was a ‘Lewis and Clark-like’ scientific expedition, planetary research professor James Head III said, Artemis has bigger ambitions: establishing a permanent base on the moon.

They were flying a spacecraft that had never carried crew before and entering the atmosphere on a trajectory that had never been attempted before, protected by a heat shield that had caused engineers worry ever since the flight of Artemis I in 2022.

The end of the historic Artemis II mission kicks off a race to establish a permanent human presence on the moon.

NASA is tracking asteroid 2026 FV6, a 91-foot airplane-sized space rock set to make a safe close approach to Earth on April 13, 2026, with no threat. NASA is continuously tracking this asteroid.

NASA says America is "absolutely back" in the space race, rushing to beat China to the moon and build a lunar base under Trump-era Artemis program.

From 250 miles above Earth, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station watched the Artemis II crew come home — and captured it on camera.