The NASA ship Artemis II lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1st, 2026, in what would become a historic mission and a strong indicator of a coming era of scientific discovery. It marks the first time humans have travelled to the moon in almost 54 years, which is an incredible feat.  

The ship housed four astronauts: Reid Weisman, Victor Glover, Christina Kock, and Jeremy Hansen on their 10-day journey around the moon. This was part of NASA’s Artemis program aimed at returning humans to the moon, further exploring it, and preparing for future missions to Mars. Artemis II was the first manned mission in the program, following the launch of an uncrewed exploration of Artemis I in 2022.

In preparing for future Artemis missions, this mission’s purpose was to put the Orion spacecraft they traveled on through a series of tests to ensure the spacecraft’s systems, crew operations, and mission procedures were adequate for future endeavors.

Since the launch of Artemis II, the crew’s completion of their 10-day orbit around the moon, and safe return to Earth, NASA is likely to start planning more space exploration for the future. 

In a world full of uncertainty, there is always comfort to be found in what we know for sure, so it’s important that we continue to fund space exploration and scientific discovery to expand our knowledge of the vast solar system surrounding us. NASA’s planning of future trips shows great promise in this way. Not only does this mean a lot for space exploration, but it also shows the possibilities of an era of great discovery in many fields.

While it is incredible, there are also negative aspects of further space exploration to be considered. Most notable is its effect on the environment. Sending any kind of spacecraft out of Earth’s atmosphere requires an extremely large amount of fuel, which, when released into the environment, contributes to global warming.

Additionally, with the cost of developing spacecraft, fueling ships, and employing all the people required to successfully launch a spaceship, traveling to space costs a significant amount of money for the United States. It is important to think about where priorities should be for government spending, especially considering the U.S.’s nearly 40 trillion dollars of national debt. Should we be spending so much money on space explorations when we have problems on Earth and the money could go elsewhere?

With this being said, the success of this mission remains momentous, and scientific discovery and space exploration of any kind represent the growth that this country needs. The launch and return of Artemis II was a success that showed an incredible scientific advancement for mankind in a world that feels so full of setbacks. •