On April 1, 2026, at 6:35 p.m. ET, a 32-story rocket lit up the Florida sky. The Space Launch System roared to life, carrying four astronauts aboard the Orion capsule on a 10-day journey around the Moon—the first time humans have traveled beyond low-Earth orbit in more than 50 years .
Millions watched the launch. Tens of thousands gathered at Kennedy Space Center to witness history . But for a small group of people, this wasn’t a spectacle. It was the moment they had been dreading and preparing for, often for years.
This is the story of what the Artemis II mission looks like from the ground—where the astronauts leave behind the people who love them most.
The Commander’s Walk: A Father’s Hardest Conversation
Commander Reid Wiseman, 50, is a retired Navy test pilot from Baltimore. He spent 165 days aboard the International Space Station in 2014 . By any measure, he is a man accustomed to risk.
But in the days before launch, Wiseman had a conversation that no amount of training could prepare him for.
A widower since 2020, when his wife died of cancer, Wiseman has raised his two teenage daughters, Ellie and Katherine, on his own while simultaneously training for the most dangerous mission of his career . Before heading to Kennedy Space Center, he took his daughters for a walk—and told them where to find his will and trust documents.
“Here’s where the will is, here’s where the trust documents are, and if anything happens to me, here’s what’s going to happen to you,” he told them .
It was, by any standard, a heartbreaking conversation. But Wiseman views it not as a burden but as a responsibility.
“I actually wish more people in everyday life talked to their families in that way because you never know what the next day is going to bring,” he said in a news conference .
Wiseman’s daughters weren’t always supportive of his return to space. After his 2014 ISS mission, they had “zero interest” in him launching again . But over time, they came around. They discussed the mission’s importance. They even baked him moon-themed cupcakes the morning after their difficult walk .
On the launch pad, Wiseman shared one more moment with them. He posted a selfie on social media showing him with Ellie and Katherine in front of the towering SLS rocket. In the playful caption, he wrote: “Dad, we can’t leave the rocket without a .5 together!! I love these two ladies, and I’m boarding that rocket a very proud father” .
Koch and Glover: Spouses and Children Waiting at Home
For Christina Koch, 47, the mission specialist, this journey is historic in another way. She will become the first woman to travel beyond low-Earth orbit to the Moon . An electrical engineer from North Carolina, Koch holds the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman—328 days aboard the ISS—and participated in the first all-women spacewalk in 2019 .
Behind her is a husband who has learned, over years of her Antarctic research and space missions, how to support a partner who pursues work that scares her. (Koch’s personal motto: “Do what scares you” .)
Victor Glover, 49, the mission pilot, carries his own historic weight. A Navy captain from California, Glover will become the first Black astronaut to journey to the Moon . He is married and has four children . For them, this launch is not the first time they’ve watched a parent leave for space. Glover flew to the ISS on the first operational Crew Dragon mission in 2020 and spent 168 days in orbit .
But this mission is different. This time, the destination is much farther away.
The Canadian’s First Flight: Hansen’s Moon Pendants
Jeremy Hansen, 50, is the only rookie on the crew. A former fighter pilot from Ontario, he has never been to space—and now his first flight will take him farther than any Canadian has ever traveled . He will be the first non-American to journey to the Moon’s vicinity .
Before launch, Hansen thought about his wife and three children. He packed four small moon-shaped pendants, engraved with the words “Moon and back,” one for each of them . He also brought maple syrup and cookies—a taste of home for the journey .
For Hansen’s family, the wait has been long. The mission was delayed multiple times due to technical issues: hydrogen fuel leaks, helium flow problems, a winter storm that pushed back preparations . But as Dr. Farhan Asrar, a space medicine researcher at Toronto Metropolitan University, noted, the astronauts have been preparing for years.
“It’s just basically continuing that same process in order to be prepared for eventually once that mission day comes in,” Asrar said .
For Hansen’s wife and children, that “mission day” finally arrived on April 1.
The Quarantine: A Final Bubble of Separation
In the weeks before launch, the astronauts entered “quarantine” at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, beginning around March 18 . On March 27, they traveled to Kennedy Space Center in Florida .
The quarantine serves a practical purpose: ensuring the crew doesn’t carry any illness into space. But it also creates one last period of separation from families before the launch.
On the night before liftoff, the four astronauts stayed in a beachfront villa at Kennedy Space Center—a tradition dating back to 1962 . It’s a quiet place designed for rest and reflection. But it’s also the last place where families can see their loved ones before they climb aboard the rocket.
For Wiseman’s daughters, that final evening likely included the walk where they heard about the will. For Glover’s wife and four children, it was another goodbye. For Hansen’s family, it was the moment before the first Canadian moon mission. For Koch’s husband, it was another chapter in a partnership built on supporting a woman who keeps reaching farther.
The Launch: Tension, Relief, and a Moonrise
The hours leading up to launch were tense. NASA had struggled with hydrogen fuel leaks during a countdown test earlier in the year, forcing lengthy delays . Engineers also had to troubleshoot a battery issue in the Orion capsule’s launch-abort system and a communication problem with the flight-termination system .
To NASA’s relief, no significant hydrogen leaks were detected this time. The launch team successfully loaded more than 700,000 gallons of fuel into the rocket .
When the countdown hit zero, the rocket lifted off. Five minutes into flight, Commander Wiseman looked out the window.
“We have a beautiful moonrise, we’re headed right at it,” he radioed to mission control .
For the families watching from the ground—in Florida, in California, in Maryland, in Ontario—those words marked the moment their loved ones officially began a journey no human has taken in more than half a century.
What Comes Next: Ten Days of Waiting
The mission will last approximately 10 days . The astronauts will spend the first day or two in high Earth orbit, testing Orion’s life-support, propulsion, and navigation systems. Then, a critical engine burn will send them toward the Moon .
They will fly behind the Moon on a free-return trajectory—a path that uses lunar gravity to swing them back toward Earth. During that time, they will be farther from Earth than anyone has been since Apollo .
For the families, the waiting continues. There will be moments of radio silence. There will be the tension of re-entry, when the capsule slams into Earth’s atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour, its heat shield facing temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit .
And then, finally, splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, where recovery teams will retrieve the crew .
The Human Side of History
It’s easy to see the Artemis II mission as a story of technology: the SLS rocket, the Orion capsule, the 10-day trajectory. But beneath the hardware and the flight plans is something more fundamental.
Reid Wiseman walked his daughters through his final affairs because he wanted them to be prepared. Christina Koch’s husband learned to love someone who chases danger. Victor Glover’s four children grew up watching their father fly to space. Jeremy Hansen packed moon-shaped pendants so his family would know he was thinking of them, even 240,000 miles away.
As NASA science mission chief Nicky Fox put it before launch: “There are a lot of people who don’t remember Apollo. There are generations who weren’t alive when Apollo launched. This is their Apollo” .
For the families of the Artemis II crew, this is also their Apollo. Their fathers, their mothers, their spouses are making history. But they are also simply waiting for them to come home.
In the end, that’s what makes this mission not just historic, but human. The same rockets that carry humanity’s highest ambitions also carry the hopes of the people who will be waiting when they return.