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NASA is giving the public a chance to have their names travel beyond Earth. Through its “Send Your Name with Artemis II” campaign, the space agency is inviting people worldwide to add their names to a digital list that will fly on the Orion spacecraft during its 2026 mission around the Moon. Participants will receive a downloadable boarding pass as a keepsake, while the names are stored on a memory card inside the capsule.
The Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida no later than April 2026. It will be the first crewed flight of NASA’s Artemis program and the first time astronauts travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Over the course of 10 days, Orion will follow a free-return trajectory, circling the Moon before heading back to Earth without landing.
The four-member crew represents a new era for human spaceflight. Commander Reid Wiseman and pilot Victor Glover, both from NASA, will be joined by mission specialist Christina Koch, also from NASA, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Koch will be the first woman to journey to the Moon, and Glover will be the first person of color. Hansen becomes the first non-American to fly beyond low Earth orbit.
During the flight, the astronauts will test Orion’s life support systems, including air and water recycling. They will assess how the spacecraft operates during different levels of activity, from exercise to rest.
The mission will also deploy five CubeSats built by international partners to study radiation and new technologies. Another key trial involves high-speed laser communications, designed to transmit data back to Earth faster than radio signals.
NASA sees Artemis II as a critical step toward establishing a long-term human presence on the Moon. The flight is expected to inform Artemis III, which aims to land astronauts on the lunar south pole by 2027. The mission is also designed to gather data on how radiation and deep-space conditions affect human health, information that will be essential for future Mars missions.
Public participation plays a role in building interest. More than a million names flew on the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, and NASA hopes to exceed that number this time.
People can sign up online until January 21, 2026, at
go.nasa.gov/artemisnames for English
or
go.nasa.gov/TuNombreArtemis for Spanish.
On launch day, all submitted names will travel with the crew.
NASA has also invited volunteers to help track the mission from home, using publicly available data to monitor Orion’s journey. Officials say these efforts are meant to remind people that space exploration belongs to everyone, not just astronauts and scientists.
