NASA said it is ready to send astronauts on a 10-day trip around the Moon with a return to Earth next February, a trip that could pave the way for a landing next year.

The U.S. space agency had previously pledged to carry out the launch no later than the end of April 2026, but said it aims to bring it forward.

This time four astronauts will be sent for ten days to test the spacecraft’s systems. They are three Americans (Reid Weissman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch) from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency (Jeremy Hansen).

During their orbit around the Moon they will reach a distance of 9,200 kilometers from our natural satellite, the greatest distance of any in the past.

Lakiesha Hawkins, a senior NASA official, said “the launch window could open as early as February 5, but we want to emphasize that safety is our top priority.”

The powerful rocket system built to carry astronauts to the Moon, the Space Launch System (SLS), is “almost ready for launch”, but it remains to attach the crew capsule, called Orion, to the SLS and complete ground test.

At the end of the 10-day journey, the astronaut capsule will be docked off California.

Return to the Moon after half a century

The Artemis II mission is the second in the Artemis program, whose goal is to land astronauts and, ultimately, their long-term presence on the Moon’s surface.

The first of the Artemis program took place in November 2022 and was unmanned. Some issues occurred with the heat shield during the Earth re-entry phase, but were addressed.

The last manned mission to the Moon by NASA was in the early 1970s – it has now been 50 years.

What happens next

The success of the mission will determine how soon NASA can launch Artemis III to land on the Moon.

But even if the second mission turns out perfectly, the space agency’s stated goal of “no sooner than mid-2027” is unrealistic, Dr. Simeon Barber told the BBC. He explains that “no sooner than” means in NASA’s “language” “the soonest it could be.”

Landing on the Moon will require the SpaceX Starship, owned by Elon Musk, to ferry astronauts to and from the surface, and we’ve seen in recent months that the Starship still has a long way to go before it reaches space let alone puts astronauts into orbit.