NASA officials on Tuesday said the agency's first crewed flight in its Artemis programme - a trip around the moon and back - is on track for launch in April and could potentially be moved up to February 2026.
The space agency's Artemis programme is the flagship U.S. effort to return humans to the moon, a multibillion dollar series of missions that rivals a similar effort by China, which is aiming for a 2030 astronaut moon landing.
Artemis 2, a 10-day flight in which a crew of four astronauts will fly around the moon and back, is a precursor test to the agency's first astronaut moon landing since 1972.
That mission, Artemis 3, is a far more ambitious and complex endeavor currently planned for 2027 and involving a moon lander variant of SpaceX's Starship rocket.
Artemis 2 involves NASA's Space Launch System rocket, built by Boeing and Northrop Grumman, and its Orion capsule, built by Lockheed Martin. Last year, NASA delayed the mission by several months to April 2026.
"We intend to keep that commitment," Lakiesha Hawkins, an acting senior official in NASA's exploration unit, said during a news conference on Tuesday of the 2026 date.
She added that the readiness of NASA's and Orion spacecraft could potentially warrant an earlier launch date, but that safety considerations will ultimately guide when the mission launches.
The Orion capsule will ride atop the giant, 98 metres (322-foot-tall) SLS rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the first time the spacecraft duo will fly with humans.
Artemis 2 will fly astronauts Reid Wiseman, the mission's commander who last flew on a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station in 2014; Victor Glover, the pilot who flew to space in 2020 on a SpaceX ISS mission; Christina Koch, a mission specialist who flew on a Soyuz ISS mission in 2019; and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, another mission specialist who will fly to space for the first time.
Hansen's inclusion will mark the first Canadian to fly in the vicinity of the moon.
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A new trilateral energy partnership involving Uzbekneftegaz, Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR and BP has been announced during Uzbekistan Energy Week 2026 in Tashkent.
The Spanish government has issued a defiant message to Silicon Valley, confirming it will push ahead with stringent new legislation designed to make social networks and Artificial Intelligence (AI) demonstrably safer.
Türkiye has completed formal preparations to begin direct commercial activity with Armenia, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday, marking another step in the slow but steady normalisation of ties between the two neighbours.
The Eurovision Song Contest opened in Vienna on Tuesday amid heightened political tensions, as Israel competed in the first semi-final despite a boycott by five European broadcasters over the war in Gaza.
Kuwait arrested four members of an IRGC-linked group as they tried to enter the country by sea, the Gulf state's KUNA news agency reported on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a senior IRGC officer said Iran had expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz to include a far wider area.
Biological samples from an Italian man were transferred to a specialist hospital for testing on Tuesday, after he was suspected of contracting hantavirus. Meanwhile, World Health Organization boss Tedros Ghebreyesus said there were “no sign” of a larger outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise.
Exclusive flight-tracking material obtained by AnewZ has raised new questions about French military aircraft movements linked to President Emmanuel Macron’s recent diplomacy with Armenia and the wider scope of France’s defence cooperation with Yerevan.
Just one week after a similar move by Australia, Greece announced that it will ban access to social media for children under the age of 15 from January 1, 2027, as governments around the world weigh tougher rules amid growing concerns over mental health, safety and screen addiction.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he does not think he will need China's help to end the war with Iran as he left for a high-stakes summit in Beijing on Tuesday, as hopes for a lasting peace deal dwindled and Tehran tightened its grip over the Strait of Hormuz.
The Spanish government has issued a defiant message to Silicon Valley, confirming it will push ahead with stringent new legislation designed to make social networks and Artificial Intelligence (AI) demonstrably safer.
A robotics startup says it has built an AI “brain” that can teach humanoid robots new physical skills in days rather than months, as the race to deploy human-shaped machines in factories and warehouses accelerates.
Apple and Meta have publicly opposed a Canadian bill they say could force technology companies to weaken encryption on devices and online services if it becomes law.
European Union countries and European Parliament lawmakers have agreed on a softened version of the bloc’s landmark artificial intelligence rules, including delayed implementation, in a move critics say reflects growing concessions to major technology firms.
Almaty is hosting GITEX AI Kazakhstan 2026 two-day event, drawing global tech firms and investors as Central Asia gains attention as a fast developing digital market. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev visited the GITEX AI Central Asia & Caucasus exhibition in Almaty on 4 May.
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