Artemis II looped four astronauts behind the lunar far side and home.
For the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, people flew to the Moon. Artemis II launched April 1, 2026 and returned April 11 — a nine-day free-return loop that swung Orion behind the lunar far side and back, with no landing. Aboard were Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen, the first non-American ever to travel to the Moon.
The flight was a shakedown of the crew systems Artemis III will need to actually land at the lunar south pole. Orion came home on a skip-entry profile — dipping into the atmosphere, bouncing back up, then re-entering — before a Pacific splashdown and Navy recovery.