As a child of the Apollo program and a lifelong dreamer of spaceflight, I am thrilled to follow the Artemis 2 mission, carrying the first humans — Reid, Victor, Kristina, Jeremy — around the Moon in over half a century. I hope we pick up where we left off, establish a permanent lunar presence, and proceed to Mars and beyond.
Kristina recently said, “Our strong hope is that this mission is the start of an era where everyone — every person on Earth — can look at the Moon and think of it as … a destination.” The dream is alive.
In Greek mythology, Artemis is the sister of Apollo; in reality, Artemis is safer (better computers), cheaper (as a fraction of US budget), and bigger (crew of 4 rather than 3) than Apollo. More importantly, with international and commercial help, I am hopeful that Artemis will evolve to a sustainable program so the Moon really does enter the human sphere as a destination, dramatically and irreversibly expanding the range of human experience.
Reid Wiseman’s Artemis 2 photo of Earth illuminated by moonlight, except for crescent illuminated by sunlight, with Venus in zodiacal light at 4 o’clock joined by aurora at 1 o’clock and 7 o’clock, shortly after translunar injection (TLI), 2026 April 2.
Artemis 2 crew — Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, Kristina Koch, Victor Glover — in their Orion spacecraft “Integrity” en route to the Moon, 2026 April 4.