{"id":123479,"date":"2026-04-02T13:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=123479"},"modified":"2026-04-02T13:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:17:19","slug":"nasa-launches-4-astronauts-on-worlds-first-crewed-lunar-mission-in-half-a-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/123479\/","title":{"rendered":"Nasa launches 4 astronauts on world\u2019s first crewed lunar mission in half a century"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Web Desk(National Times)- Four astronauts blasted off from Florida on Wednesday on Nasa\u2019s\u00a0Artemis II mission<\/a>, a high-stakes voyage around the moon that marks the United States\u2019 boldest step yet toward returning humans to the lunar surface later this decade in a race with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nasa\u2019s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, topped with its Orion crew capsule, roared to life just before sunset at the agency\u2019s Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying its debut crew \u2014 three US astronauts and a Canadian astronaut \u2014 into Earth orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 32-story-tall space vehicle thundered into clear skies, trailing a towering column of thick, white vapour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman said the launch was an opening act for subsequent missions that would include construction of a moon base to support the \u201cenduring presence we\u2019re trying to create on the surface\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the mission proceeds as planned, the crew consisting of Nasa astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, plus Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will fly around the moon and back in their nearly 10-day expedition, putting the spacecraft through its paces while venturing deeper into space than humans have ever gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mission is the debut crewed test flight in the Artemis programme, successor to Nasa\u2019s Cold War-era Apollo project, and the world\u2019s first to send astronauts in the vicinity of the moon, out of Earth\u2019s orbit, in 53 years.Nasa\u2019s Artemis II Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft lifts off from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Centre on April 1, 2026 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It serves as a crucial dress rehearsal for a Nasa bid to land humans on the lunar surface later this decade, after one more crewed mission around the moon. Nasa is targeting 2028 for Artemis IV, a first-ever landing of astronauts on the moon\u2019s South Pole, seeking to beat China\u2019s planned crewed mission to the same lunar region as early as 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time astronauts walked on the moon \u2014 a feat so far achieved only by the United States \u2014 was the final Apollo mission in 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u2019For all humanity\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After nearly three years of training, the crew is the first to fly in Nasa\u2019s Artemis programme, a multibillion-dollar venture established in 2017 to build up a long-term US presence on the moon over the next decade and beyond, serving as a stepping stone to eventual missions to Mars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minutes before liftoff, Canadian astronaut Hansen, strapped inside the gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, told mission control in Houston: \u201cThis is Jeremy, we are going for all humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said: \u201cReid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy, on this historic mission you take with you the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood luck, godspeed, Artemis II. Lets go,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few hours after liftoff, the SLS rocket\u2019s upper stage successfully separated from the Lockheed Martin-made Orion capsule and its propulsion module.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crew then began work on an early test objective: manually steering the spacecraft around the upper stage to demonstrate its manoeuvrability, should its default automated controls ever fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday\u2019s launch was a major milestone more than a decade in the making for the US space agency\u2019s SLS rocket, handing its principal contractors Boeing and Northrop Grumman long-sought validation that the launch system was ready to safely loft humans into space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nasa has increasingly relied on newer, cheaper rockets from Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX and others to send astronauts to low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success of the Artemis II flight so far provided positive talking points for a space agency that lost roughly 20 per cent of its workforce under the Trump administration\u2019s federal downsizing efforts last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d US President Donald Trump said of the launch during a national address<\/a> about the Iran war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are on their way and God bless them, these are brave people. God bless those four unbelievable astronauts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Fathest trip in history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Artemis II mission will send its four-person crew some 406,000 kilometres (252,000 miles) into space \u2014 the farthest humans have ever travelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current record for the farthest spaceflight at roughly 248,000 miles is held by the three-man crew of the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970, which was beset by technical problems after an oxygen tank exploded and was unable to land on the moon as planned.Nasa\u2019s Artemis II mission to fly by the moon, comprising of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion crew capsule, soars into the sky from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US in April 1, 2026. \u2014 Reuters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nasa launched<\/a> its first Artemis mission without crew in 2022, sending the Orion spacecraft on a similar path around the moon and back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artemis II will pose a greater test of Orion as well as the SLS rocket, a programme partly known for its ballooning costs at an estimated $2 billion to $4 billion per launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk\u2019s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin are racing to develop the landers that Nasa will use to put its astronauts on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artemis III had been set to be the agency\u2019s first astronaut moon landing, but new Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman in February added an extra test mission before the landing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Web Desk(National Times)- Four astronauts blasted off from Florida on Wednesday on Nasa\u2019s\u00a0Artemis II mission, a high-stakes voyage around the moon that marks the United States\u2019 boldest step yet toward returning humans to the lunar surface later this decade in a race with China. Nasa\u2019s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, topped with its Orion crew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nNasa launches 4 astronauts on world\u2019s first crewed lunar mission in half a century - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/123479\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nasa launches 4 astronauts on world\u2019s first crewed lunar mission in half a century - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Web Desk(National Times)- Four astronauts blasted off from Florida on Wednesday on Nasa\u2019s\u00a0Artemis II mission, a high-stakes voyage around the moon that marks the United States\u2019 boldest step yet toward returning humans to the lunar surface later this decade in a race with China. 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