Osinski: Artemis II launches soon – with a Canadian on board

NASA's Artemis 2 astronauts will fly around the moon with these 'avatars'

When the Artemis II spaceship carries four astronauts around the moon, it will also bring four miniature proxies of the crew made from their own cells. Alongside crew commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen will fly lab-grown tissue samples designed to mimic parts of the crew's bodies, particularly bone marrow, a key component of the immune system. The NASA experiment, called AVATAR — short for A Virtual Astronau…

Osinski: Artemis II launches soon – with a Canadian on board

Astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who grew up on a farm near Ailsa Craig, will be the first non-American to fly to the moon

First Crewed Moon Flyby In 54 Years: Artemis II

Tempe AZ (SPX) Feb 08, 2026 Almost as tall as a football field, NASAs Space Launch System rocket and capsule stack traveled slowly - just under 1 mile per hour - out to the Artemis II launchpad, its temporary home at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Jan. 17, 2026. That slow crawl is in stark contrast to the peak velocity it will reach on launch day, over 22,000 miles per hour, when it will send a crew of four on a j

NASA’s Artemis II Set to Launch as Early as March with Langley Technology On Board

From left: Artemis II backup crewmembers NASA astronaut Andre Douglas and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jenni Gibbons and prime crewmembers NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronaut Christina Koch, pose for a picture with NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, secured to the mobile launcher, as it makes the 4.2 mile journey from the Vehicle …