NASA’s Artemis II mission is the first crewed deep-space flight since Apollo 17 in 1972.

While I was leading a tour of the National Air and Space Museum in January 2026, a visitor posed this insightful question: “Why has it taken so long to return to the Moon?” After all, NASA had the know-how and technology to send humans to the lunar surface more than 50 years ago as part of the Apollo program.

Artemis II is not just looking backward; it is quite literally planting seeds for the future. In late 2022, the uncrewed Artemis I test flight carried a variety of tree seeds around the Moon. This harks back to a famous Apollo 14 experiment that created “Moon Trees” across the country.

NASA astronaut and retired U.S. Navy captain Winston Scott recently sat down with Space Coast Daily for an in-depth interview with John Harper, offering a personal look at his storied career in spaceflight and his perspective on the upcoming Artemis II mission,

Eileen Collins recounts the Challenger and Columbia accidents, emphasizing the community's desire to continue the shuttle program despite the risks.