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NASA is offering an extraordinary opportunity for anyone who has ever dreamed of space travel, even if getting there in person is out of reach.

 

The agency has invited the public to join the Artemis II test flight, a mission in which four astronauts will journey around the moon and return to Earth to "test the systems and hardware required for deep space exploration."

 

Your name could fly on the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket alongside NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

 

All submitted names will be compiled on an SD memory card and loaded aboard Orion before launch, giving a small but special part of you a ride to the moon.

 

"Artemis II is a key test flight in our effort to return humans to the surface of the moon and develop future missions to Mars," explained Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator in the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

 

 

Signing up is simple. Visit https://go.nasa.gov/YourArtemisName, enter your first name, last name and a PIN, and you are officially part of the mission. Registrants can also receive a boarding pass as a collectible keepsake.

 

The deadline to submit your name is January 21, 2026.

 

Artemis II will be the first crewed flight in NASA’s Artemis campaign, lasting approximately 10 days with a launch scheduled "no later than April 2026."

 

"This is another step toward new US crewed missions to the lunar surface that will help the agency prepare to send the first American astronauts to Mars," the agency stated.

 

This isn’t the first time NASA has invited the public to join its lunar adventures. In 2024, it offered a similar initiative when the robotic lunar rover VIPER was sent to the Moon’s south pole to "unravel the mysteries of water on the Moon and better understand the environment."

 

Now, with Artemis II, the chance to be part of history is open to everyone.

 

 

Image: NASA