NASA’s four Artemis II astronauts hold a press conference at Johnson Space Center in Houston on Wednesday, September 24.

The crew includes Reid Wiseman as commander, Victor Glover as pilot, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency as mission specialists.

Artemis II, scheduled for 2026, is a 10-day mission around the Moon designed to test NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket with astronauts on board for the first time. The mission aims to verify life-support systems and spacecraft performance in deep space, building on the uncrewed Artemis I flight.

During the journey, the astronauts are set to travel about 4,700 miles beyond the far side of the Moon before returning to Earth on a trajectory that uses gravity rather than propulsion.