The media reported on NASA's intention to send astronauts to the moon by 2026

The first manned flight of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the Artemis-2 program (Moon flyby and return) will take place in April 2026. This was reported on September 23 by the Reuters news agency, citing NASA representatives.

"The agency's first manned flight under the Artemis program — circling the Moon and returning back — is scheduled for April and could potentially be postponed to February," the publication says.

The Artemis space agency program is the flagship initiative of the United States to bring people back. It consists of a series of missions, according to the results of which astronauts will have to land on the Earth's satellite in 2030.

Artemis 2, in turn, is a 10-day flight in which a crew of four astronauts will fly around the moon and return back to Earth. The program will be carried out on a NASA Space Launch System rocket built by Boeing.

According to Lakisha Hawkins, acting senior official of NASA's research division, the decision on the exact launch date of the rocket will be made based on safety considerations. She added that the spacecraft's readiness may require an earlier launch date.

Space exploration: Russia to send representatives of three countries into orbit

These may be citizens of Indonesia, North Korea, Vietnam or the Central African Republic, experts believe.

SpaceX has launched a Falcon 9 launch vehicle with satellites for the Pentagon's intelligence agency. The launch was carried out at the Vandenberg Space Force base in California, the Izvestia TV channel reports.

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