Your name could fly around the Moon as NASA opens public sign-up for Artemis II

• Photo courtesy of NASA

By TechWatch PH Staff

NASA is once again inviting the public to become part of its return to the Moon, reopening its global “Send Your Name with Artemis” campaign ahead of the highly anticipated Artemis II mission — the first crewed lunar flight in more than five decades.

Under the initiative, people from around the world can submit their names online, which will be digitally stored on an SD card and flown aboard the Orion spacecraft during Artemis II’s journey around the Moon. 

After registering, participants receive a personalized digital boarding pass featuring their name, mission branding, and a unique QR code, symbolically marking their place on the historic flight.

Artemis II is a major milestone in NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon and lay the groundwork for future crewed missions to Mars.

“Artemis II will be a momentous step forward for human spaceflight. This historic mission will send humans farther from Earth than ever before and deliver the insights needed for us to return to the Moon — all with America at the helm,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman in a blog. “Artemis II represents progress toward establishing a lasting lunar presence and sending Americans to Mars. I could not be more impressed by our NASA team and the Artemis II crew, and wish them well. Boldly forward.”

Scheduled to launch no earlier than 2026, the mission will send four astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — on a roughly 10-day voyage that will loop around the Moon before returning to Earth.

Unlike Artemis I, which completed a successful uncrewed lunar flight in 2022, Artemis II will carry astronauts aboard Orion to validate life-support systems, navigation, communications, and other human-rated technologies in deep space. 

The mission will be launched atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and will travel thousands of kilometers beyond the Moon’s far side.

NASA said the public name-submission campaign is meant to bring people closer to space exploration, allowing global audiences to feel personally connected to the mission. 

Similar initiatives have previously flown millions of names on missions to Mars and other deep-space destinations, making the program a long-running tradition tied to major exploration milestones.