Houston Texans celebrate upcoming Artemis 2 mission | Space photo of the day for Jan. 23, 2025

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Leaders from NASA's Johnson Space Center and NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins helped turn a Texans home game into a pop-up space expo.

A woman with short dark hair wearing a blue suit and holding a microphone is flanked by two people wearing orange space suits with dark helmets on a football field with a full arena behind them.
NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, center, and Johnson Space Center employees Tessa Rundle and Daniel Kolodziejcyk, wearing Orion Crew Survival System spacesuits, take the field during the Texans’ "Reppin’ H-Town" appearance. (Image credit: Image courtesy of the Houston Texans)

On Jan. 4, 2026, during the Houston Texans' Space City Day game, two bright-orange spacesuits stood out against the green turf at NRG Stadium. NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) used the spotlight to give fans a close-up look at Artemis 2, the agency's first crewed mission in the Artemis campaign to return humans to the moon.

The Texans played the Indianapolis Colts that day, by the way, and won 38-30.

What is it?

Artemis 2 is designed as a 10-day lunar flyby that will send four astronauts — NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, plus Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — around the moon and back to Earth aboard the Orion spacecraft, launched on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

Unlike later Artemis landing missions, Artemis 2 is primarily a deep-space shakeout: the crew will verify Orion's systems in the environment beyond low Earth orbit, from life support to navigation to communications, building directly on the uncrewed Artemis 1 test flight to lunar orbit in 2022.

NASA currently lists Artemis 2's targeted launch date as early as February, and no later than April 2026.

Where is it?

NRG Stadium is located in Houston, Texas.

JSC employees Tessa Rundle and Daniel Kolodziejcyk, wearing Orion Crew Survival System spacesuits, celebrate the upcoming Artemis 2 mission with NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, center. (Image credit: Image courtesy of the Houston Texans)

Why is it amazing?

The Space Day Celebration shows how intertwined NASA's history is with the city of Houston. JSC, a key hub for space exploration and human spaceflight, isn't just "near Houston" but is home to NASA's astronaut corps, Mission Control and key programs like Orion and Gateway, making Houston's Space City Day a natural stage for hyping up the next crewed lunar mission.

Beyond getting people excited for the upcoming launch, NASA also encouraged the public to "ride along" symbolically with the astronauts. During the halftime festivities, NASA promoted its "Send Your Name with Artemis 2" initiative, which stores participants' names on a small chip that will travel inside Orion on the mission, a simple way to turn a major space exploration milestone into something open to everyone.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about the Artemis 2 mission and the history of moon missions.

Kenna Hughes-Castleberry
Kenna Hughes-Castleberry

Kenna Hughes-Castleberry is the Content Manager at Space.com. Formerly, she was the Science Communicator at JILA, a physics research institute. Kenna is also a freelance science journalist. Her beats include quantum technology, AI, animal intelligence, corvids, and cephalopods.

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