Al Root

The Artemis II mission is on the cusp of another milestone.

Four astronauts -- Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen -- are about to be farther away from Earth than any humans in history, beating a record set by the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.

NASA will broadcast the event. The broadcast can be watched here.

Apollo set the distance record in 1970. American's haven't been back to the moon since 1972. The Artemis group of missions aims to change that, returning Americans to the Moon and establishing a permanent presence there. The second mission, Artemis II, lifted off on April 1, shortly after 6:35 p.m. Eastern time, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

At about 2 p.m., the Orion spacecraft, which launches atop a NASA SLS rocket, will be about 253,000 miles from Earth, some 4,000 miles farther than Apollo.

Artemis has given a boost to some commercial space stocks, including mini-SpaceX Rocket Lab; communications provider AST SpaceMobile; lunar lander maker Intuitive Machines; Firefly Aerospace, which makes rockets and lunar landers; satellite maker York Space Systems; and components supplier Redwire. Through midday trading on Monday, the six were up an average of 17% for the month.

York and Firefly recently sold shares in IPOs. The other four stocks were up an average of 146% over the past 12 months.

Investor interest in space is headed to the moon.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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April 06, 2026 13:35 ET (17:35 GMT)

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