The Artemis II mission that will take a crew of astronauts around the moon and back to Earth is expected to launch no earlier than February 6, 2026.

Video shows the NASA WB-57 plane touching down with a jolt, its wings bouncing as yellow fire and white smoke bursts from beneath it.

A NASA video (above) reveals in great detail how its upcoming Artemis II mission is expected to play out. The space agency released the animation last year, but seeing that the Artemis II astronauts could be heading to the moon as early as February 6,

NASA is moving into a new phase of space exploration, with major progress across human spaceflight, science missions, and advanced technology. In just one year, the agency has launched multiple crewed and science missions,

NASA's space shuttle Challenger completed 10 missions before it broke apart during a launch in 1986, killing seven astronauts.

The buzz is building for NASA’s Artemis II mission that will send four astronauts on a 10-day voyage around the moon. The highly anticipated endeavor will be the first crewed moon-bound flight since the final Apollo mission way back in 1972.

NASA has delayed astronauts' upcoming trip to the moon because of near-freezing temperatures expected at the launch site.

What everyone agrees on is that NASA needs a new spacecraft capable of relaying communications from Mars to Earth. This issue has become especially acute with the recent loss of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. NASA’s best communications relay remains the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has now been there for 20 years.