# Lunar launch

### ASU alumna Kelsey Young is the Artemis II mission’s lunar science lead

By Lisa Robbins, ASU News
May 20, 2026

Editor's note: This story was featured in the summer 2026 issue of ASU Thrive.

When Artemis II launched in April, sending astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, the mission broke records — and will help scientists understand undiscovered secrets, including the history of Earth and our solar system.

As lunar science lead for NASA’s Artemis II mission, Kelsey Young, ’12 MS and ’14 PhD in geological sciences, led the team that developed the lunar science plan and trained the crew to study the moon.

In this mission, the crew carried out scientific observations of the moon’s surface, including the far side and a huge crater called the Orientale Basin that wasn’t observed during the Apollo missions.

The launch made history as the first crewed flight to the moon in over 50 years, breaking the distance record previously held by Apollo 13 for the farthest humans have traveled from Earth.

This mission also will help get the U.S. ready for the big moment of landing humans on the moon again in Artemis IV, as well as for deep space exploration, including paving the way for going to Mars.

This story originally appeared on ASU News.