On Flight Day 5, the Artemis II crew is troubleshooting a blocked space toilet while closing in on a major milestone 200,000 miles from Earth.

The Artemis program aims to go further, not only bringing humans to the moon but also building a permanent base there. Artemis II, the program’s first crewed flight, is essentially a practice run. In the course of ten days,

A powerful, Easter message from a member of the Artemis II crew. Last week, NASA launched a mission to perform a lunar flyby for the first time in 50 years. Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen,

The blackout is expected to last about 40 minutes, during which the four astronauts will be completely out of contact, travelling through space in silence.

If the pending Artemis II mission is successful, it will not just send Americans around the moon and back for the first time in more than half a century—it will send them further than any human being has traveled into space.

NASA intends to send a lot of people to the moon-and to Mars-in the coming decade.

The Artemis II crew got the green light to bring iPhone 17s aboard the spacecraft months ago and had them in hand during their pre-flight quarantine. Smartphones have left Earth's orbit before, including on the 2021 Inspiration4 SpaceX flight and the last mission of the American Space Shuttle program.

A $5.6 billion cut means NASA will have $18.8 billion for the 2027 fiscal year which begins on October 1.