Cosmic Perspectives from Amid the Stars:
Astronomy Blog

Apollo 13 was supposed to be NASA’s third time landing a crew on the Moon. Instead, it turned into a mission of survival that became one of the most intense chapters in the history of human space flight. An explosion in the oxygen tank put the fate of the mission and its crew in peril. Along the way on their mission to return home safely, the crew of Apollo 13 became the humans to travel farthest from Earth, a record that stood until April 6, 2026, when the crew of Artemis II

Today, March 24, 2026, NASA announced Space Reactor-1 Freedom, a nuclear-powered spacecraft that’s planned to travel to Mars as early as 2028. Freedom would be the first nuclear-propelled craft to venture beyond Earth orbit and it could be the future of exploration in our Solar System. Traveling to planets beyond our own is a tricky prospect. There’s a reason that humans have never traveled further from Earth than the Moon. But Mars is on the top of our list for places to se

The Space Race was the Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to achieve superior space travel technology, which eventually culminated in the first manned Moon landing and potentially contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Even today, our space programs are built upon the base established during the period. But why was the Space Race so important to both nations, and who ended up winning it?

Artemis II is set to bring humans back to the Moon no earlier than February 8. We might be days away from this milestone in space exploration and travel. But what’s the purpose of Artemis II and what’s its mission? Artemis II, the second mission of the Artemis Program, is the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. While Artemis II won’t be landing on the Moon, it is a pivotal step in our return to the Moon’s surface as well as our travels beyond.

The countdown has begun. Part of the groundbreaking Artemis Program, the Artemis II launch is nearly upon us. No later than April of 2026 will Artemis II launch with the first crewed trip to the Moon in over 50 years. Apollo 17 marked the end of an era in 1972 when it departed from the Moon with the final crew to ever make the voyage. Since then, humans have never strayed farther from Earth than low Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station.

It’s been over fifty years since the last human set foot on the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission. On December 14, 1972, the last ship of the Apollo Program left the Moon, ending the historic three-and-a-half-year era of discovery and exploration. The Apollo Program was the only time in history where humans went beyond low-Earth orbit and set foot on another celestial body. That’s all about to change.