NASA

Close approach expected in 2029 at about 32,000 kilometers above Earth; 'something like this has not been recorded in human history'

Like Earth and the solar system's other planets, Mars formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago. Early in its history, Mars was warmer and wetter than the cold and arid place it is today.

It took recovery teams less than two hours to secure the floating capsule and retrieve the crew, ending the first human voyage to the vicinity of the moon in over fifty years.

After 10 days in space, Artemis II astronauts are set for a splashdown in the Pacific, marking humanity’s return to the Moon's vicinity for the first time since Apollo.

The Artemis II crew, flying in their Orion capsule since launching from Florida last week, are due to splash down off the Southern California coast on Friday.

The Artemis II crew, flying in their Orion capsule since launching from Florida last week, awoke around 10:50 a.m. for their sixth flight day to a recorded message from late astronaut Jim Lovell.

The mission, a 10-day journey around the Moon, represents the United States' most significant step yet toward returning humans to the lunar surface within this decade.

Christina Koch is expected to become the first woman to fly around the moon.

The mission is the first crewed test flight in NASA's Artemis program, the flagship US effort to begin regular flights to the moon, at an estimated cost of at least $93 billion since 2012.

The updated exploration plan details surface habitat concepts, cargo and power infrastructure, and a nuclear thermal propulsion pathfinder for crewed deep-space transit.