Over 50 years after Apollo’s last mission, NASA is now just 48 hours away from bringing humans back to the moon with Artemis II. This historic 10-day mission marks the first crewed launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft as it takes four pioneering astronauts around the moon.

In this photo story, we take a look at how the crew and rocket got to this point of being ready to launch by looking back at all the hard work and challenges that occurred during the uncrewed Artemis 1 foundations in 2022, through the high-pressure survival training of the crews and the complex hardware integration in 2026. The images that follow show how the most powerful rocket in the world is evolving and how the diverse crew is preparing for a permanent presence of Human Beings on the moon.