Apollo 17 in December 1972 was NASA’s final Project Apollo manned lunar mission. On April 1, 2026, following lengthy delays, the agency returned to manned lunar spaceflight with Artemis II, a mission similar to Apollo 8 in December 1968, which marked the first time that humans ventured beyond Earth orbit. Three railroads—Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern and Florida East Coast—transported essential Artemis II rocket components to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla.If all goes as planned, four astronauts will reach the Moon (though not enter lunar orbit as Apollo 8 did), marking the first crewed mission on NASA’s path toward establishing “a sustained lunar presence.” The mission is historic in that it will be the furthest that human beings have ever traveled into space—4,700 miles beyond the dark side of the moon, as they loop around it in a ”free return trajectory.” Artemis II is crewed by four astronauts: Commander Reid Wiseman (front), Pilot Victor J. Glover (center), Mission Specialist Christina Koch (left), and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen (right). Glover, Koch, and Hansen are to be the first person of color, woman, and non-American to go beyond low Earth orbit, respectively. Hansen is Canadian and is of the Canadian Space Agency; a 2020 treaty between the United States and Canada actualized his involvement. NASA photo April 1, 2026, 6:35 PM EDT: Artemis II lifts off Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center under nearly 9 million pounds of thrust. NASA photo. NASA photo. NASA photo. “This 10-day mission will not only test NASA’s pioneering deep space exploration technologies, but it will…
