KEY POINTS

NASA announced a launch date for first crewed flight to the moon since 1972.

The Artemis II mission will circle the moon but not land on the surface.

If successful, NASA is set to put humans on the lunar surface in 2027.

The last time a human has traveled beyond low Earth orbit came aboard the final Apollo mission over 50 years ago.

And it’s been eight years since NASA debuted Artemis, the U.S. space agency’s program aiming to lift astronauts not only beyond the confines of LEO but back to the surface of the moon.

This week, NASA announced plans to take the next critical step toward that goal with a crewed space flight that could launch early next year, aiming to travel the 250,000 miles to Earth’s sole satellite, and a bit beyond, in a precursor lunar fly-by mission ahead

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