On the morning of May 5th, 1961, 37-year-old Alan Shepard woke up, ate a breakfast (consisting of a filet mignon wrapped in bacon, scrambled eggs, and orange juice), strapped into the Freedom 7 rocket, and blasted off into space, becoming the first American astronaut to do so.

Shepard's historic flight - and the first crewed flight of Project Mercury - did two things. It demonstrated that after getting beat to space by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, America was still in the race. And it proved the United States could safely send a human into space and back, helping to restore national confidence during the Cold War. Shepard's flight only l …

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Humans haven’t set foot on the Moon since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Now, the space agency is racing to get back to the lunar surface under the umbrella of its Artemis program — a nod to the Greek goddess and twin sister of Apollo, whose name was given to NASA’s first program to send humans to the Moon. 

The program has been plagued by years of delays, development mishaps, and billions of dollars in budget overruns, but the mission is unquestionably ambitious. The goal of Artemis is to create a sustainable presence near the Moon, instead of just sending humans to plant flags and make footprints. The agency also aims to send the first woman to the Moon through the Artemis program.

Artemis I successfully completed its uncrewed mission in 2022. On April 2nd, 2026, Artemis II launched from Kennedy Space Center carrying four astronauts in its Orion capsule to travel around the Moon before returning to Earth 10 days later, testing out the systems that could soon see humans standing on the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years in 2028, on Artemis IV. But for now, the next step is Artemis III, a low-Earth orbit mission planned for 2027.

• NASA announced the astronauts for the Artemis III mission in 2027.
• From Alan Shepard to Artemis, celebrating 65 years of Americans in space
• “Duuude. No. Way.”
• Artemis II commander says a lunar landing is “absolutely doable, and it’s doable soon.”
• Splashdown.
• How to watch the Artemis II astronauts return to Earth
• Artemis II’s heat shield is about to be put to the test.
• Interior design at 25,000 mph
• How can you help NASA astronauts land on the Moon?
• The European Service Module is guiding Artemis II back to Earth.
• That’s no moon.
• OLED black levels from outer space.
• Artemis II crew is ‘homeward bound’ after swinging by the Moon.
• First photos of solar eclipse from Artemis II crew look almost too good to be real
• NASA’s record breaking lunar flyby.
• NASA’s Orion spacecraft has reached its maximum distance from Earth: 252,756 miles.
• Artemis II astronauts break a record, name a crater
• Artemis II crew sets the distance record.
• The Artemis II astronauts will set a new distance record from Earth today
• Today’s Artemis II lunar flyby will be livestreamed on Netflix.
• The far side of the Moon peeks out to say hi.
• You can’t doomscroll 230,000 miles from Earth.
• Artemis II is more than halfway to the Moon.
• Why the Artemis II crew is relying on decade old tech.
• NASA did eventually solve Artemis II’s Outlook glitch
• Hey, that’s Earth!
• “With this burn to the moon, we do not leave Earth, we choose it.”
• Artemis II tech support checking in.
• A stunning look at the Artemis II liftoff.
• NASA launches four astronauts toward the Moon on the Artemis II mission
• The Artemis Moon base project is legally dubious
• The NASA countdown begins.
• NASA’s Moon mission delayed again.
• NASA’s now targeting March 6th as its earliest Artemis II launch attempt.
• Artemis II delayed.
• Cold weather in Florida is pushing back the Artemis II launch
• SpaceX proposes a new plan for NASA’s Artemis III moon landing.
• NASA’s mission to return humans to the Moon has been delayed again until 2026
• NASA wants SpaceX and Blue Origin to deliver cargo to the moon
• NASA picks three companies to develop a Moon car for Artemis astronauts
• NASA’s Artemis mission to take humans back to the Moon has been delayed until 2025
• How to watch NASA’s Artemis I SLS megarocket launch
• NASA moves next Artemis I rocket launch attempt to September 3rd
• NASA seeks to put first person of color on the Moon in Artemis mission
• NASA will fly Orion deep-space crew capsule ‘as is,’ despite failed component
• A Canadian astronaut will fly around the Moon on the first crewed mission of NASA’s new rocket
• At his last Space Council meeting, Mike Pence announces new cadre of lunar astronauts
• Component failure in NASA’s deep-space crew capsule could take months to fix
• Senate committee’s budget for lunar landers falls short of NASA request
• NASA administrator says he plans to leave position under Biden administration
• Water ice on the Moon may be easier to reach than we thought, new studies claim
• US and seven other countries sign NASA’s Artemis Accords to set rules for exploring the Moon
• Head of Russian space program calls for more international cooperation in NASA’s Moon plans
• NASA wants to buy Moon rocks from private companies
• House budget bill denies major increases for NASA to fund ambitious Moon program
• NASA wants to hear your ideas for engineering the best toilet to use on the Moon
• NASA announces international Artemis Accords to standardize how to explore the Moon
• NASA picks SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics to create landers to take humans to the Moon
• The Trump administration calls for big budget increases for NASA to fund Moon-to-Mars program
• NASA administrator on the year ahead: ‘A lot of things have to go right’
• NASA to help SpaceX, Blue Origin, and more develop technologies for Moon and Mars travel
• This company says it has a lunar space suit that will be ready for NASA’s 2024 Moon mission
• Trump repeatedly asks NASA administrator why we can’t go straight to Mars
• NASA’s daunting to-do list for sending people back to the Moon
• NASA administrator on recent personnel shakeup: ‘There’s no turmoil at all’
• Head of NASA’s human exploration program demoted as agency pushes for Moon return
• NASA is testing how its new deep-space crew capsule handles a rocket emergency
• NASA’s future Moon rocket will probably be delayed and over budget yet again: audit
• NASA administrator says it will cost an extra $20 to $30 billion to send astronauts back to the Moon
• NASA administrator says ‘nothing has changed’ after Trump’s tweet about the Moon and Mars
• Trump tells NASA to stop talking about the Moon return his administration is pushing
• NASA administrator on new Moon plan: ‘We’re doing this in a way that’s never been done before’
• The uphill battle NASA faces to sell its Moon plan to Congress
• NASA’s initiative to put a woman on the Moon is named Artemis, after Apollo’s twin sister
• White House wants $1.6 billion extra for NASA to accelerate astronaut return to the Moon
• NASA’s plan to get to the Moon by 2024 isn’t ready yet
• Lockheed Martin unveils lunar lander design to get humans to the Moon by 2024
• NASA is figuring out how much money it needs to meet a faster lunar return
• Mike Pence tells NASA to accelerate human missions to the Moon ‘by any means necessary’
• NASA’s planning to send people back to the Moon’s surface in about a decade