NASA's Artemis II Moon mission is set to make space history

NASA's Artemis II is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39B on Wednesday at 6:24 p.m. ET, sending three American astronauts and Canadian Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day lunar flyby aboard a 322-foot-tall Space Launch System rocket. The mission will make history: astronaut Victor Glover will become the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Christina Koch the first woman to do so, and Hansen the first non-American to venture that far from Earth. Artemis II serves as a crewed dress rehearsal for eventual lunar landings, following in the footsteps of Apollo 8 and 10 from decades ago. NASA has scheduled a backup launch window for Thursday at 7:22 p.m. ET if weather or technical issues delay the Wednesday attempt. The mission marks a stepping stone toward Artemis III and IV, with a targeted moon landing now planned for 2028 and an eventual goal of establishing a permanent lunar base.