It has been more than 50 years since the last Apollo mission, and now there are only 48 hours left before NASA’s Artemis 2 manned return to the moon. The historic 10-day mission marked the first crewed launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, carrying four pioneering astronauts around the moon.
In this photo story, we take a look at how the crew and rocket got ready for launch by looking back at all the hard work and challenges that occurred during the unmanned Artemis 1 foundation in 2022, through the crew’s high-pressure survival training and the complex hardware integration in 2026. The images that follow show how the world’s most powerful rocket developed and how its diverse crew prepared for a permanent human presence on the moon.
