NASA's Artemis II mission sent the first humans back to the moon in over 50 years. A crew of four astronauts undertook a 10-day mission around the moon and back, kicking off the first crewed mission of the agency's Artemis program, which aims to land people on the moon in 2028 and eventually set up a base there. 

“This is really an outstanding accomplishment that they have really already gone through and made the farthest distance we've ever traveled with humans in a spacecraft,” Sean O'Keefe, University Professor Emeritus and former NASA administrator, tells WSYR. 

“It's done the same circuit around the moon but much further distance out and back in. So, it is the reconnaissance itself on what the next mission will look like when they land, and it has been thorough. And so as a consequence, really seeing the Earth from an entirely different perspective,” he says.

In a NewsNation interview, O'Keefe says, “It was a spectacular achievement, and one that really is another step in the long continuum of human exploration of not only here on Earth, but now well into space and moving further out.”