For the Superfans of Spaceflight, Artemis II Can’t Launch Soon Enough
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Future engineers and former space campers hope to infect people around them with enthusiasm for NASA’s latest moon mission.
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NASA
American space and aeronautics agency
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and space exploration. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA operates ten field centers across th...
Artemis II
Artemis program's second lunar flight
Artemis II is a planned lunar spaceflight mission under the Artemis program, led by NASA. It is intended to be the second flight of the Space Launch System (SLS), and the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft. It is the first crewed mission around the Moon, and beyond low Earth orbit, since A...
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Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT For the Superfans of Spaceflight, Artemis II Can’t Launch Soon Enough Future engineers and former space campers hope to infect people around them with enthusiasm for NASA’s latest moon mission. Listen · 4:51 min Share full article By Scott Cacciola April 1, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ET Lanie McKinney, a Ph.D. candidate at M.I.T. and a co-president of the school’s Space Industry Club, is excited about NASA’s long-awaited Artemis II moon launch . Like really, really excited. Give her a few minutes, and she can cite reason after reason for the mission’s importance. She sees Artemis II as the latest phase of a multipronged expedition that NASA and its biggest fans hope will pave the way for humans to inhabit the moon and even travel to Mars. Ms. McKinney believes that, as the four-person Artemis II crew potentially travels deeper into space than any astronaut has gone before, public fascination with space travel will catch up to the excitement that she and her fellow space exploration superfans already feel. “I think we’ll get images and pictures by humans that will enrapture the world,” she said. But it hasn’t always been the easiest season for the nation’s space enthusiasts. Spreading the gospel of Artemis II often means confronting a sea of apathy. “My non-space friends haven’t even mentioned it,” said Daniel Romano, another co-president of the M.I.T. club, which is for students interested in careers focused on spaceflight. And Ms. McKinney has been fielding questions from friends and family members that go something like this: Didn’t we already go to the moon? And we’re not even doing a lunar landing this time? For all those blasé reactions, her enthusiasm is unbowed. Her club plans to host a watch party on Wednesday, followed by a conference on the “ New Space Age ” before the mission returns to Earth. Enthusiasts in other parts of the country describe their near-constant consumption of news about Artemis II. “...
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