The crew of NASA's Artemis II mission, including Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch, participated in a public event at Place-des-Arts in Montreal on May 22, 2026. The event focused on the mission's objectives and the future of lunar exploration.
Artemis II is scheduled to launch no earlier than September 2025, according to NASA's latest update. The mission will send a crew of four astronauts around the Moon and back, marking the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket. It is a critical step toward returning humans to the lunar surface.
During the Montreal event, the astronauts answered questions from the public and media, highlighting Canada's contribution to the Artemis program, including the Canadarm3 robotic system for the Lunar Gateway. The crew also emphasized international collaboration in space exploration.
Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian astronaut, is the first non-American to be assigned to a lunar mission. The crew has been training extensively for the approximately 10-day mission, which will test Orion's systems in deep space.
