For the first time since Apollo 17 left the lunar surface in 1972, human beings have flown to the Moon. Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, carrying four astronauts on a free-return trajectory around the Moon and back — the crucial crewed test flight before humanity lands again.
The crew represents several firsts. Commander Reid Wiseman leads the mission alongside pilot Victor Glover, the first Black astronaut on a lunar mission; mission specialist Christina Koch, the first woman to fly to the Moon; and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, the first non-American ever to leave low Earth orbit.
Artemis II doesn't land. Like Apollo 8 in 1968, its job is to prove the spacecraft — the Orion capsule and the Space Launch System rocket — can keep a crew alive on the journey out and bring them home safely. The flight path swings the crew around the far side of the Moon, farther from Earth than any humans have traveled in more than five decades.
What comes next is the part that makes this era different from Apollo. Artemis III aims to put astronauts on the lunar surface near the Moon's south pole, where permanently shadowed craters hold water ice — a resource that could support a sustained human presence. Artemis IV and beyond build toward a long-term lunar infrastructure, with the Moon serving as the proving ground for the technologies and endurance needed for eventual crewed missions to Mars.
Why does a stargazing company care about all this? Because the Moon is the first telescope target most people ever look at — and the next time you see it through our telescopes, you'll be looking at a world humans are actively returning to. The craters and gray plains in the eyepiece are no longer just history. They're a destination again.
On your next tour, ask your guide to point out the lunar south pole region. You'll be looking at the future landing site of the next people to walk on another world.
