Report to Congress on Returning Humans to the Moon

The following is the June 25, 2026, Congressional Research Service In Focus report, Artemis: NASA’s Program to Return Humans to the Moon. From the report Orion and the Space Launch System The Artemis program has evolved from plans initiated in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-267). The act established a statutory goal of “expand[ing] permanent human presence beyond low-Earth orbit” and mandated the development of a crew capsule and a heavy-lift rocket to accomplish that goal. The capsule, now known as Orion, and the rocket, known as the Space Launch System (SLS), have been in development since that