Astronauts Are Going Back to the Moon For The First Time in Half a Century

NASA’s Artemis II mission, now planned for March 2026, will mark humanity’s first crewed journey around the moon in more than five decades. A diverse four-astronaut crew, including the first woman, the first person of color, and the first Canadian to travel beyond low Earth orbit, aims to venture farther into space than humans ever have, surpassing even Apollo 13’s distance record. Their mission—aboard the Orion spacecraft atop the Space Launch System rocket—entails a 10-day lunar flyby, designed to test deep-space systems and prepare for future landings. Despite hydrogen leaks, launch delays, and the complexity of reviving lunar exploration after half a century, Artemis II represents something profound: not just NASA shaking off decades of cobwebs, but humanity’s renewed determination to venture beyond our planet, together.

That Christmas wish served as a coda—and a redemption—for a blood-soaked year that saw assassinations and burning cities in the U.S., Soviet tanks in Prague, a North Vietnamese offensive on the holiday of Tet, riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, and more. Borman, Lovell, and Anders received uncounted cards, letters, and telegrams when they returned, but the one that moved them most, from a woman whose name is now forgotten, read simply, “Thank you. You saved 1968.”