Artemis II at the Edge: NASA’s Riskiest Moon Mission Since Apollo — and Why Canada Is Onboard
Artemis II at the Edge By Paul Jensen When NASA’s Artemis II spacecraft departs Earth orbit for the Moon in 2026, it will mark humanity’s first crewed journey beyond low Earth orbit in more than half a century. The mission, a ten‑day lunar flyby aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, has been widely compared to Apollo 8 — the bold 1968 mission that first carried humans around the Moon. But inside NASA, Artemis II is viewed as something more: a deliberately high‑risk test flight intended to confront the most dangerous unknowns of modern human deep‑space travel before astronauts attempt to land on the lunar surface. Adding to the mission’s significance is the presence of a Canadian astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, aboard what is arguably the most consequential human spaceflight since the Apollo era. His inclusion is not ceremonial. It reflects how Artemis differs fundamentally from Apollo — not merely in technology, but in how exploration itself is organized, shared, and sustained. This article ...