NASA is just days away from launching Artemis II, the first crewed lunar mission since 1972. Four astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen – will ride the Orion spacecraft for a trip around the Moon that will last approximately ten days. Carrying forward the decades-long tradition, NASA will fly several relics on the mission to celebrate America’s legacy of exploration.
✅ A piece of fabric from the original Wright flyer
✅ A U.S. flag that flew on the first and final shuttle missions
✅ A negative of a photo that was captured by Ranger 7All this & more will fly aboard the official flight kit of the Artemis II mission: https://t.co/4m6cLPNT7Z pic.twitter.com/KszpR7YBQh
— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) January 26, 2026
“Historical artifacts flying aboard Artemis II reflect the long arc of American exploration and the generations of innovators who made this moment possible,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement. “This mission will bring together pieces of our earliest achievements in aviation, defining moments from human spaceflight, and symbols of where we’re headed next.”
Artemis II is targeted for launch as early as February 6 and no later than April 6.
What will NASA’s Artemis II carry to the Moon?
One of the items the Orion spacecraft will carry to the Moon is a piece of humanity’s first plane. The item is a 1-inch by-1-inch swatch of muslin fabric used by the Wright Brothers for the original Wright Flyer which made the first powered flight on December 17, 1903. It has been loaned from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and will be returned to the museum after the mission concludes. In 1985, a smaller square cut of the swatch flew aboard space shuttle Discovery on the STS-51D mission.
A 13-by-8-inch American flag will also be onboard Orion after previously flying on three missions – STS-1 (first shuttle mission), STS-135 (final shuttle mission) and Demo-2 (SpaceX’s debut crew mission).
Another flag meant to fly on the cancelled Apollo 18 mission is part of the payload to symbolise America’s renewed commitment to human exploration of the Moon, along with a 4-by-5-inch negative of a photo from Ranger 7 – the first American mission to touch the lunar surface in 1964.
Similar to NASA on Artemis I, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is sending tree seeds in the kit that will be distributed after the mission. NASA did the same after Artemis I in December 2023, and it’s now sending soil samples collected from its facilities where those seeds were planted. Other items include an SD card with millions of names of ordinary citizens, stickers and patches from CSA, and flags from European Space Agency (ESA).
Status of Artemis II
The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, mounted with the Orion spacecraft, was rolled out to the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on January 17 and it’ll undergo a wet dress rehearsal in a few days. During the rehearsal, engineers will load cryogenic propellant into the rocket and conduct a countdown similar to launch day before unloading the propellant.
The four astronauts are already in quarantine since January 23 for health and safety reasons, and if all goes well, NASA will definitively announce a launch date.
Artemis II will be commanded by Wiseman, whereas Glover will serve as the mission pilot and both Koch and Hansen as mission specialists. While Hansen is a Canadian, the other three astronauts are from the US.
ALSO READ: NASA’s Artemis II Crewed Moon Mission May Launch On Feb 6 – All The Records It Will Set
ALSO READ: Artemis 2 Explained: NASA’s First Crewed Moon Mission Since 1972
