NASA launched Artemis II from Kennedy Space Center on 1 April, sending four astronauts on a flight around the Moon. The crew comprised Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA, together with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The mission marked the first crewed journey towards the Moon in more than half a century and a major test of the systems intended to support future lunar exploration. Its planned flight profile was a lunar flyby, not a landing on the surface. At launch, the tasks ahead included evaluating spacecraft performance and crew operations beyond low Earth orbit. This brief records the launch milestone; later mission results and the crew's return are separate developments.