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Two Moon programs, decades apart — but how similar are they really? Join us as we break down the biggest similarities and differences between NASA's Apollo and Artemis missions, from Cold War rivalries to 21st-century coalitions, from Apollo 11's historic landing to Artemis II's record-breaking lunar flyby, and everything in between!
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00:00NASA wants to be on the moon in two years. What does that look like?
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the biggest similarities and differences between the Apollo and Artemis missions.
00:11Two moon programs separated by decades, but united by one giant leap.
00:15It is July 20th, 1969, and man is about to land on the moon.
00:23Both were built to send humans beyond Earth orbit.
00:26So we've been living and working on the International Space Station for about the last 24 years.
00:30You know it well, you love it, you have the cupola above us.
00:33Sure, there it is.
00:34And so that was the first step in understanding humans off the planet.
00:37The next step to getting to Mars is to go learn how to work around the moon, get to deep
00:41space, get away from Earth, learn how to work on another celestial body.
00:46At the most basic level, Apollo and Artemis are trying to do the same extraordinary thing.
00:51Send astronauts far beyond the relative safety of low Earth orbit and bring them home alive.
00:56That might sound obvious, but it's an important point to make.
00:59A couple of big things are just manufacturing technology and computing technology.
01:02So you can make things faster and a little more robust, and you can put a lot more computing power
01:06in a small space.
01:07That's a big one.
01:08If you look at it, the capsule looks very much like the Apollo-era capsules.
01:11There's just a whole lot more horsepower stuffed in there.
01:13Most human spaceflight has taken place relatively close to Earth, whether aboard space shuttles or on the International Space Station.
01:20Apollo shattered the boundary by carrying crews all the way to the moon, and Artemis is now doing the same
01:25for a new generation.
01:26Jeremy, this is your first space trip.
01:28Yeah.
01:29Okay.
01:29Pretty exciting.
01:30Do you have any questions, like for these guys?
01:33Not for me.
01:34For these guys.
01:35Like things they don't teach you in astronaut school.
01:37Well, yeah, there's definitely a few.
01:39I think there's a question we'll all have.
01:40We'll be the first humans to ride on this enormous rocket, and we'll be riding it up, and the whole
01:44way up we'll be like,
01:44Is this normal?
01:45Is that normal?
01:46I have no idea.
01:47What's that sound?
01:48These guys aren't going to be able to help me with that.
01:50In fact, Artemis 2, launched on April 1st, 2026, became the first crew to lunar mission in more than half
01:55a century.
01:56It sent four astronauts around the moon and farther from Earth than any humans had ever gone,
02:01even surpassing Apollo 13's old distance record.
02:04Four, three, two, one.
02:08Booster ignition.
02:09And lift off.
02:11The crew of Artemis 2, now bound for the moon.
02:14Humanity's next great voyage begins.
02:17Apollo was a Cold War race.
02:19Artemis is a long-term exploration program.
02:22We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,
02:26not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
02:30Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.
02:38Because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept,
02:42one we are unwilling to postpone.
02:45And one we intend to win.
02:47And the others too.
02:48This is probably the single biggest difference between the two programs.
02:52Apollo was born out of a geopolitical urgency.
02:54President John F. Kennedy's 1961 challenge to land a man on the moon before the decade was out
03:00wasn't simply about science or exploration.
03:02No, it was about beating the Soviet Union in one of the Cold War's most visible arenas.
03:07Man and his quest for knowledge and progress is determined and cannot be deterred.
03:13The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not.
03:19And it is one of the great adventures of all time.
03:22And no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race
03:31for space.
03:32The moon became a proving ground for American power, technological superiority, and national prestige.
03:38Artemis, by contrast, isn't being sold as a one-time dash to plant a flag first.
03:43It's being built up as a broader, longer campaign.
03:46Return astronauts to the moon, build experience for repeated operations there,
03:50and use that knowledge as a bridge toward Mars.
03:53So yes, both are moon programs, but Apollo's core question was, can we win this race?
03:58While Artemis is asking, how do we reach the next phase of human exploration?
04:02That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
04:08Both followed the same basic roadmap.
04:11The 10-day test flight will demonstrate a range of deep space exploration capabilities with crew.
04:16The mission will prove the Orion spacecraft is ready to keep astronauts alive in deep space
04:22and allow the crew and ground teams to practice operations essential to the success of future missions.
04:29For all their differences, Artemis clearly echoes Apollo in one crucial way, the mission sequence.
04:35Neither program starts with a crewed landing.
04:37First, you test the hardware without astronauts.
04:40Then you send a crew around the moon.
04:42The 6 million pound moon rocket produces 8.8 million pounds of thrust to accelerate towards space.
04:4975% of this power comes from the two 17-story solid rocket boosters,
04:54each producing 3.6 million pounds of thrust.
04:58Only after that do you move toward a landing attempt.
05:00Apollo followed that logic in dramatic fashion,
05:03building toward Apollo 8's crewed lunar orbit mission in 1968 and Apollo 11's landing in 1969.
05:09Artemis has taken a similar broad approach,
05:11with Artemis 1 flying uncrewed in 2022,
05:14and Artemis 2 now serving as the crewed lunar flyby and systems test.
05:18And that's not an accident.
05:19Ultimately, the crew's figure-eight flight path extends more than 230,000 miles from Earth.
05:26During the trip, the astronauts continue to evaluate the spacecraft's systems
05:30and practice emergency procedures like testing the radiation shelter.
05:33NASA knows that deep space missions demand gradual escalation,
05:37because every step reveals something new about navigation, communications, life support,
05:42and re-entry at lunar return speeds.
05:44While the architecture may be more modern, and the timeline less aggressive,
05:48the underlying roadmap is very familiar.
05:51Test first, circle the moon next, then aim for the surface.
05:54Their observations will help us prepare for future missions at the moon.
05:59During this period, there will be an anticipated communication blackout between mission control and the spacecraft.
06:05As the crew returns from the far side of the moon,
06:08Orion is drawn home by Earth's gravity in a free return trajectory,
06:12ensuring a fuel-efficient four-day trip.
06:15Apollo was faster and more direct.
06:17Artemis is more complex and collaborative.
06:18Right on time, as far as the astronaut countdown is concerned,
06:22the prime crew now departing from their crew quarters.
06:25Apollo moved with astonishing speed.
06:27NASA went from President Kennedy's challenge in 1961 to a successful moon landing in 1969,
06:32and then managed six crewed lunar landings between 1969 and 1972.
06:37It was a relatively direct architecture driven by a national imperative
06:41and built around a more centralized government-led model.
06:44Artemis is different.
06:45It is NASA-led, but much more layered.
06:48The program uses the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft,
06:52but it also depends heavily on commercial partners for key components of the moon return.
06:56The president and I want to get to the moon in this president's term,
07:01so I'm going to open up the contract.
07:04I'm going to let other space companies compete with SpaceX, like Blue Origin.
07:10Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are competing to provide that capability.
07:14Artemis has been described as being part of NASA's push to enlist private industry
07:19in deep space exploration, and the broader program also involves international partners
07:24in ways Apollo largely did not.
07:26In simpler terms, Apollo was a tightly focused national sprint.
07:30Artemis is a sprawling 21st century coalition project.
07:33Whatever one can get us there first to the moon, we're going to take.
07:38And if SpaceX is behind, but Blue Origin can do it before them, good on Blue Origin.
07:42But by the way, we also might have two companies that can get us back to the moon in 2028.
07:48But again, we're not going to wait for one company.
07:51We're going to push this forward and win the second space race against the Chinese,
07:54get back to the moon, set up a camp, a base.
07:56And from there, we're going to figure out how we can actually get to Mars.
07:59Both carried enormous symbolic weight.
08:01It's a history-making mission in many ways.
08:04First Canadian, first woman, first person of color on a lunar mission.
08:08I assume.
08:14Neither Apollo nor Artemis is just a technical exercise.
08:17Both programs mean something bigger than the missions themselves.
08:20Apollo became one of the defining achievements of the 20th century,
08:24proof that the United States could mobilize science, industry,
08:27and political will on a breathtaking scale.
08:29It turned the moon landing into a global cultural moment
08:32and a lasting symbol of what the space age could be.
08:35Oh, boy.
08:38You're looking good, here.
08:42What?
08:43Wait, we're going to be busy for a minute.
08:46I can't throw them on.
08:47Take care of the people.
08:49I'll get the specter back.
08:51While they say something, I'm speechless.
08:53I'm just trying to hold out of my breath.
08:55Artemis carries a different, but still enormous, symbolic burden.
08:58It represents America's attempt to restart human lunar exploration
09:01after more than 50 years.
09:03But it also reflects a changed world.
09:06Specifically, Artemis unfolds in a new era of international cooperation
09:10and strategic competition,
09:12especially with China's own lunar ambitions heating up.
09:15NASA has stated,
09:15we will return Americans to the moon before the end of President Trump's term.
09:19Our great competitor said before 2030.
09:22The difference between success and failure will be measured in months, not years.
09:26There's also the symbolism of the crew itself.
09:28Artemis II included Victor Glover, Christina Koch,
09:32and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen,
09:34making the mission far more representative
09:36than the all-white, all-American, all-male Apollo lunar crews.
09:39Ultimately, in both eras,
09:41the moon missions were about more than rockets.
09:43They became statements about the kind of future their backers wanted to project.
09:46What's it mean to you now that you are that for other young people coming up?
09:52It's an amazing feeling, honestly.
09:54I think the real thing to celebrate about this mission
09:56is that we've made a decision as an agency, as a country,
10:00that we are going to go for all and by all.
10:02If we're not taking contributions from every single person with a talent ready to share it,
10:06then we're not truly answering humanity's call to explore.
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10:42Apollo was about getting there first.
10:44Artemis is about going back to stay.
11:01Apollo proved that humans could reach the moon, land there, and return safely.
11:06That achievement was world-changing,
11:08but it was never built as a permanent system for living and working in cislunar space.
11:12Artemis is trying to be something broader.
11:14Its aim is making the first steps to our long-term human presence on and around the moon.
11:20Not just repeating Apollo's flags and footprints moment for nostalgic effect.
11:23The idea is to use sustained lunar exploration as a stepping stone toward Mars,
11:28while also building up the technologies, partnerships,
11:31and operational experiences needed for repeated missions.
11:34This is a magnificent accomplishment to be up here,
11:37to see the moon, to see the Earth,
11:39and to know that we are between those two celestial bodies,
11:42and you can see it when you look out the window.
11:44The Earth is almost in full eclipse,
11:45the moon is almost in full daylight,
11:47and the only way you could get that view is to be halfway between the two entities.
11:51It's just, it is truly awe-inspiring up here.
11:53That's why Artemis has been tied to commercial landers,
11:56long-term planning, and repeated future operations,
11:59rather than a single headline-grabbing stunt.
12:01Apollo answered the question of whether humanity could get there.
12:05Artemis is trying to answer a harder one.
12:06What would it take to keep going back,
12:08and eventually push even farther?
12:11And then the final emotion is hope.
12:14Hope for humanity's future, that we can do this right now.
12:17It means we could do so much more.
12:19Which matters more to you?
12:21Getting there first, or building something that lasts?
12:23Be sure to let us know in the comments.
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