The modern day effort to send astronauts to the moon is making progress.

NASA aims to send four astronauts under its Artemis program, the successor to Apollo, which put 12 men on the moon from 1969 through 1972.

NASA officials said Tuesday that the first crew will fly around the moon and back no later than April of 2026, and possibly as early as February.

That would be followed by a landing near the lunar south pole by astronauts no earlier than 2027. China is seeking its own astronaut moon landing by 2030.

The U.S. remains the only country to have landed astronauts on the moon.