NASA's Artemis II will carry the first woman and person of color to deep space.

Artemis II will send a four-person crew beyond the moon on a roughly 10-day circumnavigation and includes the first woman and the first Black person to travel to deep space; the test flight is set to launch as soon as April.

NASA's Artemis II is a crewed, NASA-led test flight that will circumnavigate the moon and marks the agency's return to deep-space human missions after more than five decades. The four-person crew includes Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, and their selection brings several firsts for deep-space travel. The mission will use the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket, hardware NASA has developed over two decades. The flight is planned as a 10-day mission and serves as a pathfinder for a later lunar landing mission. Key details: - Crew and notable firsts: Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot, reported as the first Black person to travel to deep space), Christina Koch (mission specialist, reported as the first woman to venture to the moon vicinity), and Jeremy Hansen (Canadian mission specialist, the first non‑NASA astronaut on a lunar mission). - Mission profile: A roughly 10-day circumnavigation of the moon that will travel farther from Earth than typical low-Earth orbit missions. - Distance and duration: The article cites an expected journey of about 600,000 miles (approximately 965,600 kilometers) over roughly 10 days, potentially exceeding Apollo-era distance records. - Technical and operational context: This will be the first human flight of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System, systems that have been in development for many years and have known issues. - Risks noted: The crew will face higher radiation exposure and periods when communications with Earth may be limited or lost. Summary: The Artemis II mission represents both technical and symbolic milestones for NASA and its international partners, advancing plans to return humans into deep space and preparing for a future lunar landing mission. Launch is reported as planned for as soon as April, and the flight is intended to inform Artemis III and longer-term objectives such as sustained lunar operations and eventual Mars missions.