This month, NASA is aiming to launch four astronauts atop a 32-story rocket on a 10-day mission around the far side of the moon. The flight of Artemis II will be NASA's first human mission to the moon since Apollo 17, 53 years ago. NASA sees it as a critical stepping stone toward its ultimate goal: landing astronauts on the lunar surface again, establishing a sustained presence there and using the moon as a gateway to future Mars missions. After a number of delays, President Trump set a goal of returning Americans to the moon by 2028, while China plans a lunar landing by 2030, making Artemis II a key leg in a 21st century space race.
For a moon rocket this massive, this is what one small step looks like. About two weeks ago, we went to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to see the three-and-a-half million pound SLS rocket, crowned by the Orion crew capsule, roll out atop an Apollo-era crawler, inching four miles from the assembly building to the launch pad – top speed, less than one mile an hour. Hundreds of employees, who worked on this – NASA's most powerful rocket – brought their families to see their towering achievement. Also there, the four astronauts who will make a solitary arc around the moon. We met them at launch pad 39b.
Bill Whitaker: What do you feel when you see that?
Reid Wiseman: A lotta pride. A lotta pride for the nation, and a lotta pride for the international partnerships that have put this thing together.
Reid Wiseman is the mission commander. His crew includes pilot Victor Glover and two mission specialists: Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch.
Artemis II astronauts
60 Minutes
Christina Koch: This is kind of a monument to the fact that we as humans decided to pour resources into sending people off the planet. And that's just an amazing thing to me, an amazing thing to be a part of.
Koch, Wiseman and Glover have all experienced the wonders of space on board the International Space Station. Hansen, an experienced fighter pilot from our long-time space partner Canada, has never before gone into orbit.
Jeremy Hansen: I wonder, "What is that really gonna look like? And what is that gonna feel like?" I have this sense that-- it can't not touch your soul to see the Earth from the perspective of the w-- moon.
Bill Whitaker: So if all goes according to plan, you are going to be the first astronauts to travel to the moon in more than half a century. What's going through your minds?
Victor Glover: Don't screw it up. I'm-- I'm joking, but partly not joking. You know. But I think the real thing today is what it took to get that rocket out to the pad. And so I hope our team is-- is celebrating this, because it's a big part of, you know, the next thing to come.
Bill Whitaker: The United States has been to the moon several times. Why is it important for us to go back?
Christina Koch: So many countries right now are realizing the value in what we can bring back by going to the moon. The industry gains, the knowledge gains, the scientific gains, the inspiration gains. There's so much to gain that I'm happy that we are leading the way back.
Artemis II is meant to lay the groundwork for future Artemis missions that will put Americans back on the moon and establish a lunar space station. The four Artemis II astronauts will sling around the far side of the moon in the Orion capsule just about 5,000 miles above its surface before heading back home. This mission is to test whether the rocket, life-support systems and crew controls work as designed.
For the crew, this has been almost three years in the making. They trained in simulators and learned to live and work inside the cramped Orion capsule.
Artemis I, which flew in 2022 without a crew, was a full-system test flight to prove the rocket and capsule are mission ready for humans to travel around the moon and back.
It splashed down safely in the Pacific. But on inspection, engineers found the heat shield was damaged on re-entry, though the interior of the capsule was not.
Bill Whitaker: Is there a level of concern about the heat shield on this one?
Reid Wiseman: You're hitting Earth's atmosphere at roughly 39 to 40 times the speed of sound. There is concern.
Reid Wiseman: We're gonna modify our entry trajectory. We're actually gonna come in a little bit hotter, a little bit faster than Artemis I. And based on the issues that we had with the heat shield, that will keep us safe.
Bill Whitaker: I know you expect that everything is going to go according to plan. But what are your concerns?
Jeff Radigan: I'm sorry, Bill, was that a-- was that a joke that everything goes to-- to plan?
Jeff Radigan
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According to lead flight director, Jeff Radigan, a flawless mission is NASA's never-ending quest.
Jeff Radigan: I expect things will go very well, and I also expect there's gonna be something unexpected. I think every space mission we've flown something has come up, and we've had to deal with it.
Radigan told us he has great confidence in the Artemis II mission and crew. NASA's challenge is what comes next: getting Artemis III astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon's surface. To do that, NASA, in 2021, awarded a nearly $3 billion contract to Elon Musk's SpaeX for the lunar lander version of its Starship, the biggest, most powerful launch vehicle ever built. Made of two components, the lunar lander will sit atop the reusable super heavy booster.
After several spectacular failures and explosions, the starship rebounded with successful launches this past August and October. But the setbacks and technical complexity have contributed to the delay in America's return to the moon's surface. NASA's target for putting American astronauts back on the moon is now 2028.
Bill Whitaker: Are we going to make that?
Jeff Radigan: I think there's a-- lot of things that need to happen to make that successful. You know, first step, fly Artemis II, and I'll tell you, I spend most of my time on this mission. But we're gonna need our SpaceX partners to-- to get a lander out there for us, get back down to the surface of the moon.
Artemis may be Apollo's mythological twin, but upcoming missions with SpaceX bear little resemblance. For example, the massive SpaceX lander that will rendezvous with the crew in lunar orbit has to be refueled in space, a complex process requiring the launch of ten or more fuel tankers. Nothing like this has ever been done before. Elon Musk says it's needed to propel deep space exploration.
Elon Musk (at SpaceX in January 2026): And we want to have epic futuristic spaceships with lots of people in 'em, traveling to places we've never been to before.
But first he has to get Starship to the moon. With the complexity and delays, NASA has doubts SpaceX can meet the president's timeframe and is seeking a plan b.
Jim Bridenstine (before Congress in September 2025): The purpose of this hearing is, you know, are we going to be able to get to the moon first?
Jim Bridenstine was NASA administrator in President Trump's first term and launched the Artemis program. This past September, he told Congress America's moon landing system has since grown too complicated.
Jim Bridenstine (before Congress in September 2025): It is extraordinarily complex. In some cases– you know, it, it, it, it, it- hinges on us- me saying here today that it is highly unlikely that we will land on the moon before China.
Bill Whitaker: What would it mean if China were to put humans back on the moon first?
Dr. Scott Pace: Of course it would be massively embarrassing.
Dr. Scott Pace
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Scott Pace was executive secretary of the National Space Council during the first Trump administration and helped NASA develop the Artemis program. He says establishing a presence on the moon is important. who gets there first this century is not.
Dr. Scott Pace: I don't downplay the embarrassment and bad headlines and everything else that would come from the Chinese, you know, returning to the moon before we're able to do so. That said, from a longer term strategic approach, that is a relatively short news story, whereas who sets the rules for the space domain, who is there permanently, that's a story for the next century.
Pace told us the competition with China should force NASA to rethink what he calls an unwieldy and expensive approach. The agency spends more than $2 billion on each single-use SLS rocket, while private companies, he says, are pursuing a more sustainable path with reusable components like SpaceX has demonstrated for a decade. He encourages commercial competition, which is intensifying among cosmic one percenters. After NASA called for a backup lander plan, Musk's SpaceX posted that it is "assessing a simplified mission architecture." On Friday, Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin announced at least a two year pause of its space tourism flights to focus on moon missions.
In November, Blue Origin sent its powerful New Glenn rocket into orbit and returned the booster to a platform in the Atlantic - a first for Blue Origin.
John Couluris: To bring back that first stage was game changing. Because now, like an airplane, you're now able to reuse that vehicle.
John Couluris is senior vice president of lunar permanence at Blue Origin. NASA tapped the company to develop a human lunar lander for future missions. With the artemis program behind schedule, NASA is pressing contractors to pick up the pace.
Bill Whitaker and John Couluris, senior vice president of lunar permanence at Blue Origin
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John Couluris: So it's public knowledge that NASA asked all the Artemis vendors on, "How can we accelerate our efforts?"
Couluris showed us the first and smaller iteration of Blue Origin's lander – the Mark 1. This unmanned cargo lander will be the company's first vehicle to land on the moon.
John Couluris: So this vehicle will be the largest and heaviest lander to ever land on the moon.
The almost 30-foot-tall lander is wrapped in gold-colored insulation to protect it from solar heat and radiation. Until now the lander has been kept under wraps. Our cameras were the first allowed to see it. Coulouris told us, later this year, Blue Origin's new Glenn rocket will carry the Mark 1 into space to descend to the south pole of the moon.
John Couluris: The reason for that is there's ice there. So we can take that ice and create water to sustain humans, to break that water down into propellants to then fuel future vehicles that then can go from the moon to anywhere else in the solar system.
Bill Whitaker: What do you think about this moment?
John Couluris: It's incredible. Artemis II represents that first effort in decades of deep space exploration of humans. I- I can't wait for them to go.
The Artemis II astronauts could fly deeper into space than any humans ever, about 250,000 miles from Earth. and once the spacecraft goes behind the moon, the astronauts will be out of all contact with earth for about 40 minutes. Flight director Jeff Radigan told us he'll be counting the seconds.
Bill Whitaker: If something should go awry, you've got the lives of four astronauts on your hands.
Jeff Radigan: I do. It's a heavy weight, and I think about that every day. You know, my job is to bring Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy home safely. These are my colleagues, these are my friends and-- they're my responsibility.
Bill Whitaker: There will be a period of about 40 minutes when you will be out of contact with the Earth?
Victor Glover: That's when we will be closest to the moon, farthest from the earth. But it also is a human moment, you know? And I would love for us to have-- a moment of togetherness, for humans to just go, "Hey, there's a part of humanity that's not in touch with the rest of us, and let's just get 'em all back, and then we can go back to the hustle and bustle." But I hope that that inspires folks to just have a moment of togetherness.