{"id":801451,"date":"2026-04-01T04:48:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=801451"},"modified":"2026-04-01T04:48:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:48:32","slug":"nasa-artemis-ii-astronauts-about-to-moon-launch-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=801451","title":{"rendered":"NASA Artemis II astronauts about to moon launch : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n The Artemis II crew includes three NASA astronauts \u2014 Reid Wiseman (left), Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen. The four crew members are slated to launch as early as Wednesday, April 1 at 6:24 p.m. Eastern time. If successful, it would mark the first time humans have visited the moon in more than 50 years.
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Bill Ingalls\/NASA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Bill Ingalls\/NASA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Before taking his last steps on the moon, NASA astronaut Gene Cernan<\/u> made sure to scratch his young daughter’s initials into the lunar dust.<\/p>\n

He had some parting thoughts for the rest of humanity, too.<\/p>\n

“We leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind,” the Apollo 17<\/u> commander said before departing for Earth.<\/p>\n

That was December 1972<\/u>. Now, more than half a century later, NASA may be about to fulfill Cernan’s wishes. <\/p>\n

Watch the launch live stream, set to start at 12:50 p.m. Eastern time, here.<\/em><\/p>\n

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