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Why Artemis II Was the First Crewed Lunar Flyby in Over 50 Years

Artemis II carried four astronauts around the Moon in April 2026, marking the first crewed lunar flyby and the first departure by humans from Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972. It tested Orion and SLS with crew but did not enter lunar orbit or land.

Timeline

  1. 1972-12-07: Apollo 17 launched on the last crewed lunar mission before the Artemis era.
  2. 1972-12-19: Apollo 17 returned to Earth after orbiting and landing astronauts on the Moon.
  3. 2026-04-02: Artemis II left Earth orbit after its translunar injection burn.
  4. 2026-04-06: The crew completed a far-side lunar flyby, humanity’s first since Apollo 17.

Artemis II was the first mission to carry people into the vicinity of the Moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen launched on April 1, 2026. After leaving Earth orbit on April 2, their Orion spacecraft flew around the lunar far side on April 6 and then returned directly to Earth. The gap between Apollo 17 and Artemis II was more than 53 years. [1][2][3]

The phrase ‘first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo’ needs a precise boundary. People had continuously lived and worked in low Earth orbit, including on the International Space Station, but no crew had departed Earth orbit for the Moon since Apollo 17. Robotic spacecraft continued lunar exploration throughout the gap. Artemis II’s milestone was the return of humans to deep space near the Moon, rather than the first lunar mission of any kind since the 1970s. [2][3]

Artemis II was a flyby, not a lunar landing or a mission that entered lunar orbit. Orion used a free-return trajectory that carried it around the Moon and naturally directed it back toward Earth. On April 6 the spacecraft passed about 4,067 miles above the lunar surface and reached 252,756 miles from Earth. The four astronauts observed and photographed the far side, but they remained inside Orion throughout the mission. [1][4][5]

Apollo 17 had a different profile. It placed astronauts in lunar orbit and sent commander Eugene Cernan and lunar-module pilot Harrison Schmitt to the Taurus-Littrow valley, while command-module pilot Ronald Evans remained in orbit. NASA records Apollo 17 as the most recent mission on which people walked on the Moon. Artemis II ended the gap in crewed travel near the Moon, but it did not end the longer gap in human lunar surface landings. [3][6]

The 2026 flight was primarily a crewed systems test. Artemis II was the first mission with astronauts aboard both the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket. The flight evaluated life support, navigation, communications, manual handling and crew procedures in high Earth orbit and deep space. NASA describes the mission as a step toward later surface missions because validating these systems with people aboard is necessary before assigning more complex lunar objectives. [1][2][7]

The flyby also produced milestones that were not part of the Apollo 17 comparison. Orion carried the crew farther from Earth than any humans had traveled, passing Apollo 13’s 1970 distance record and reaching 252,756 miles. During the far-side passage the crew experienced a planned communications blackout, photographed lunar terrain and observed a solar eclipse from deep space. Those achievements help explain the mission’s importance, but the ‘first in over 50 years’ label refers specifically to crewed travel around the Moon. [4][5][8]

The clearest historical description is therefore that Artemis II restored a human capability that had gone unused since 1972: leaving Earth orbit and flying through the lunar vicinity. It did so with a new rocket, spacecraft and international crew, on a free-return path without orbiting or landing. Statements that humans ‘returned to the Moon’ are understandable shorthand, but readers should distinguish proximity, orbit and surface operations when comparing Artemis II with Apollo. [1][2][3][6]

Sources

  1. NASA — Artemis II mission overview
  2. NASA — Artemis II leaves Earth orbit for flight around Moon
  3. NASA — Apollo 17 mission overview
  4. NASA — Flight Day 6 crew wraps historic lunar flyby
  5. NASA — Artemis II crew eclipses farthest human spaceflight record
  6. NASA — Apollo 17 lunar surface journal
  7. NASA — Artemis II reference guide
  8. NASA — Artemis II crew beams lunar flyby photos to Earth

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