More than half a century after the last Apollo mission faded into history, humanity is poised to return to the moon. In a spectacle of engineering might, NASA has rolled the colossal Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to the pad, setting the stage for the Artemis II launch as early as February 6, 2026.

The sheer scale of the operation at Kennedy Space Center cannot be overstated. The crawler-transporter, moving at a snail’s pace of 1 mph, carried the 322-foot rocket to Pad 39B in a 12-hour procession that felt like a religious pilgrimage for space enthusiasts. This is not a drill; this is the dawn of the Mars era.

The Crew: Humanity’s Vanguard

On board the Orion capsule will be four pioneers: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. They represent a new face of exploration—diverse, international, and laser-focused. They will not land, but they will go further into deep space than any human has ever ventured, looping around the dark side of the moon in a 10-day odyssey.

"We are going not just to visit, but to learn how to live out there," Commander Wiseman said during the rollout. "This is the proving ground."

• The Stakes: A successful mission paves the way for Artemis III, which will land the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface. Failure would set the program back by years.
• The Tech: The wet dress rehearsal later this week is the final exam. Engineers must load 700,000 gallons of cryogenic fuel without a leak—a feat that plagued the Artemis I test.

The Lunar Economy

Artemis is more than science; it is geopolitics. With China accelerating its own lunar ambitions, the US is racing to establish norms and "first presence" at the lunar south pole, where water ice promises fuel for future missions. The rollout this week is a message to Beijing as much as it is to the stars: America is back, and this time, we are bringing our friends.