Right now, as you read this, four astronauts are hurtling through deep space on their way around the Moon.
NASA's Artemis II mission launched on April 1, 2026, from Kennedy Space Center, and today — Monday, April 6 — the crew crossed into the Moon's sphere of influence, becoming the first people to do so since the crew of Apollo 17, in 1972. Space.com
It's a genuine, historic milestone, and it's happening right now.
Artemis II is an ongoing United States spaceflight mission sending four astronauts on a flyby around the Moon. The ten-day mission is crewed by NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Wikipedia It is the second flight of the Space Launch System (SLS), the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft, and the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972. Wikipedia
Who Is on Board?
The crew of Artemis II represents a remarkable collection of firsts. Reid Wiseman, 50, is the commander — a NASA veteran and former International Space Station commander leading the mission. Victor Glover, 49, is the pilot and the first Black astronaut assigned to a lunar mission. Christina Koch, 47, is a mission specialist and the record holder for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 328 days. Jeremy Hansen, 50, is a mission specialist and the first Canadian set to travel to the Moon. Al Jazeera
The crew gave their Orion spacecraft a name, too. Wiseman said the crew nicknamed their spacecraft "Integrity," as a nod to the principle that guided them and their colleagues throughout their training. NBC News
Why Artemis II Matters
At its core, Artemis II is a systems validation mission. NASA will use the flight to test the Orion spacecraft's life support systems, navigation, communication links and overall performance in deep space with a crew on board — conditions that cannot be fully replicated on Earth. Al Jazeera The mission does not include a lunar landing; the crew will perform a flyby around the Moon's far side and return to Earth, with splashdown expected on April 10. But the stakes could not be higher: if successful, Artemis II will pave the way for Artemis III, and future missions that could establish a sustained human presence beyond Earth. Al Jazeera
There is also something deeply poetic about today's milestone. Artemis 2 astronauts are the first to see the Moon's far side with human eyes. Space.com A new frontier, seen by human eyes for the very first time. That's not science fiction — that's April 6, 2026.
Marvel Comics Has Always Known This Day Was Coming
Here at the Marvel Heroes Library, we love to celebrate the connection between Marvel's cosmic mythology and the real universe unfolding around us. And the truth is, Marvel storytellers have been fascinated by NASA, astronauts, and the dream of deep space exploration since the very beginning.
Fantastic Four #1 (1961): Where It All Started
Before there were Avengers, before there was a Marvel Universe as we know it, there were four people who stole a rocket ship because they refused to let the Communists beat them to the stars. In Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961), written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm launch themselves into space without proper shielding — and come back forever changed by cosmic ray bombardment. The message was clear from page one: space is dangerous, space is transformative, and the people willing to brave it are extraordinary. Stan Lee and Kirby were writing in the white heat of the Space Race, and that energy crackles off every panel. The Fantastic Four are, at their core, a team of explorers — scientists and adventurers who go where no one else dares. Sound familiar?
Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (1969): The Original Guardians, and a NASA Man Named Vance Astro
The debut of the original Guardians of the Galaxy in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (January 1969), written by Arnold Drake with art by Gene Colan, is one of the most remarkable comics of the Silver Age — and it features one of Marvel's most direct and poignant tributes to NASA's astronaut corps.
The story is set in the year 3007, with the solar system conquered by the reptilian Badoon empire. Among the four heroes who will band together to form the Guardians of the Galaxy is Major Vance Astro — a man described as the first human being ever to travel to the stars. Crucially, Vance Astro was a NASA astronaut. He left Earth in 1988 with his blood replaced by preservative fluid to survive a thousand-year journey in suspended animation, only to wake up and discover that humanity had developed faster-than-light travel two centuries after his departure, making his sacrifice heartbreaking and his journey lonely beyond imagination. Forced to wear a copper foil suit for the rest of his life to prevent instant aging, Astro is now a prisoner of the Badoon when the story begins — but his courage, his psychic powers, and his indomitable spirit make him the beating heart of the team.
Think about that character for a moment in light of today's news. Vance Astro gave everything — his body, his time, his connections to everyone he ever loved — for the dream of reaching the stars. The Artemis II crew isn't traveling a thousand years into the unknown, of course, but they are accepting real risk for the same fundamental reason: because exploration is worth it. Because someone has to go first.
The other original Guardians — Charlie-27, a Jovian soldier built to withstand crushing gravity; Martinex, a crystalline Plutonian who can generate extreme heat or cold; and Yondu, a blue-skinned alien from the world Astro originally landed on — are equally fascinating. Together, the four vow to keep fighting even when all seems lost, calling themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy. It's a genuinely moving origin, and it's rooted in the NASA mythology of its era.
Marvel Preview #4 (1976): Peter Quill, NASA Trainee, Becomes Star-Lord
Seven years after Vance Astro's debut, Marvel gave us another cosmic hero with a NASA badge. Marvel Preview #4 (January 1976), written by Steve Englehart with art by Steve Gan, tells the origin of Peter Jason Quill — the man who will become Star-Lord.
Peter's story begins under extraordinary circumstances: born during a rare planetary conjunction in February 1962, raised in near isolation by his mother Meredith after his father abandoned them. He grows up fascinated by the stars, inspired by Star Trek reruns and, significantly, the Apollo moon landing. By November 1981, Peter is a NASA trainee in Houston — described as technically the most gifted astronaut anyone has seen. He's cold, difficult, impossible to work with, but brilliant. When he's rejected from a Mars mission roster due to his personality, he snaps, gets demoted to an Earth orbital station, and it's from that station — floating alone among the stars — that he first feels truly at peace.
When a cosmic being announces that one person from the station will be chosen to become the Starlord, Peter volunteers immediately. Passed over at first, he steals a scout ship and launches himself toward the pickup point in an act of pure, reckless, magnificent defiance. It turns out he was always the intended choice. He's given a helmet, a universal energy weapon, and a cosmic mission — and Peter Quill the NASA astronaut becomes Star-Lord.
The parallel to today is unmistakable: a young person who grew up watching the Apollo moon landing, who spent his life training for space, who refused to be left behind when the call came. Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen are real human beings who, like Peter Quill, looked up at the Moon and stars and refused to look away.
The Dream Connects Us
What makes NASA's Artemis II so exciting isn't just the hardware or the milestones — it's the story. Four human beings, aboard a spacecraft named Integrity, flying to the Moon because humanity decided it wasn't done exploring. The Fantastic Four stole a rocket because they refused to lose the stars to fear. Vance Astro gave a thousand years for the chance to reach another star system. Peter Quill hijacked a scout ship because no cosmic force was going to leave him behind.
Real astronauts and Marvel heroes are cut from the same imaginative cloth: the belief that the universe is out there to be explored, and that the risk is worth the wonder.
We'll be watching every update from Artemis II here at the Marvel Heroes Library. And we have a feeling that somewhere, in some parallel universe, Vance Astro and Peter Quill are watching too.
Explore the comics mentioned in this article: