NASA's Artemis 2 crew 'Ready for every scenario'

The first astronauts in the 21st century are getting ready to go to the moon.

During a press conference on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, led by Canadian mission commander of Artemis 2, Reid Wiseman told reporters at the Johnson Space Center that “we’re going to launch when this vehicle is ready, when this team is ready, and we’re going to execute this mission to the best of our abilities.”

The four NASA astronauts of Artemis 2 mission are currently undergoing intensive training for what is being seen as the first crewed moon flight in over 50 years, in the 21st century.

Artemis 2 mission commander Reid Wiseman also unveiled the name of an Orion spacecraft that would attempt to carry them on the lunar flight, called "Integrity.”

The Orion spacecraft is NASA’s latest advanced crewed space launch vehicle, designed for the primary objective of deep space exploration as part of the Artemis program to return humans to the moon and finally to Mars.

The spacecraft consists of two main components: the crew module (CM), which is the astronaut’s living module, and the European Service Module (ESM), which provides propulsion, power, and life support systems.

Excited mission commander Reid Wiseman further added, “We might go to the moon—that’s where we want to go-but it is a test mission, and we are ready for every scenario as we ride this amazing Space Launch System on the Orion spacecraft, 250,000 miles away. It's going to be amazing.”

On the 10-day Artemis 2 mission, four astronauts who will make a trip around the moon and back to Earth are Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch (both from NASA), and a Canadian astronaut, Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Jeremy Hansen will make a trip around the moon and back to Earth as early as February 2026.

Artemis 2 is a historic mission that will mark a number of firsts:

• The crewed mission moon flight since NASA’s acclaimed Apollo program.
• The first woman and person of color to visit lunar realms.
• The first astronaut flight of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to go beyond just landing humans on the moon but also to conduct sustained crewed exploration of the lunar south pole and ultimately lay the groundwork for a manned mission to Mars, aims to go up 9,000 miles beyond the moon, which will be farther than NASA’s Apollo 13 astronauts that flew during a near-disastrous flight in the 70s.

NASA is optimistic about launching Artemis 2, with launch windows between early February and April 2026.

After decades of planning and development, this mission will pave the way for an even more ambitious mission: Artemis 3, the first astronaut landing on the moon of NASA’s Artemis program.