'I hope they forget all about Artemis 2': Moon astronauts are taking the long view

Four people in orange spacesuits stand on a road

The four astronauts of NASA's Artemis 2 mission stand outside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a dress rehearsal for launch day on Dec. 20, 2025. From left: Canada's Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman. (Image credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

The astronauts of NASA's Artemis 2 moon mission want to become a mere footnote in the annals of space history.

Artemis 2 will send NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day flight around the moon. As the first crewed trip to lunar realms since Apollo 17 in 1972, this mission will be momentous — but the Artemis 2 astronauts hope future generations have reason to gloss over their contributions.

Back to the moon: Inside NASA's Artemis II mission - YouTube

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"I completely agree," Wiseman said.

"But you're the first step," Whitaker pointed out.

"Yeah, but watch what's coming next," Hansen responded. "It gets pretty extraordinary from here."

NASA is targeting Feb. 8 for the launch of Artemis 2, which will take place atop a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

Hitting that date, however, is contingent upon the successful completion of numerous prelaunch checks, including a crucial SLS fueling test that's happening at KSC's Pad 39B today (Feb. 2). Artemis 2 has backup launch opportunities on Feb. 10 and Feb. 11. After that, there are windows available in March and April.

Artemis 2 is the first crewed mission of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to establish a permanent human presence on and around the moon by 2030 or so and, as Koch mentioned, help pave the way for crewed trips to Mars. If all goes to plan, Artemis 3 will put astronauts down on the lunar surface in 2028, and future missions will help establish and operate a base in the area.

You can watch the 13-minute "60 Minutes" Artemis 2 piece on YouTube. The discussion of the mission's legacy quoted in this article came from a separate, seven-minute "'60 Minutes' Overtime" segment, which you can find here.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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