The final preparations for the 10-day Artemis II mission launch are underway. On Saturday, January 17 (US time), the moon-bound mission’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft reached Launch Pad 39B following a nearly 12-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, according to the official NASA news release. 

In turn, the groundbreaking step in the right direction to scripting history ended up eliciting some sharp reactions online, kicking off the journey on a hilarious note. As per NASA’s previous revelations the rocket could blast off into space as early as February 6.

While the crew members are still very much on Earth at the moment, the beaming potential of their future days as the Artemis II team are already reminding audiences of another certain group of popular astronauts from a fictional universe they can never get enough of — Marvel’s Fantastic Four. 

Artemis II crew dubbed Fantastic Four ahead of Moon mission 

Sharing a picture of the four Artemis II crew members – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen – on its official X account, NASA wrote earlier: “We are just weeks away from Artemis II, where we will send astronauts around the Moon—farther than any crew has traveled before.”

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Other users on X have since embarked on a re-posting trail, sharing hilarious takes comparing the real-life astronauts to the all-time favourite fictional group, Fantastic Four, from Marvel Comics. “Pls come back with superpowers Pls come back with superpowers Pls come back with superpowers,” one such widely-liked tweet read on the platform. 

A fan page dedicated to the beloved characters, who were mostly recently brought to life by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in the 2025 live-action film The Fantastic Four: First Steps, also shared the NASA post. “It’s a Fantastic Four thing,” it captioned the tweet.

A third such post read: “They look like the kind of people to get hit with cosmic rays.” Yet another Marvel deliberately quipped, “I really hope these four astronauts have a fantastic journey to space.”

Uncanny similarities between NASA’s Artemis II crew and the Fantastic Four

For the unversed, the Artemis II team is also composed of four members, with the specific combination of one woman and three men, like the Marvel superheroes. The running joke here is that the Marvel characters were originally your average group of astronauts too who chose to venture into outer space.

However, their interstellar journey ends up exposing them to cosmic rays along the way, granting them superhuman abilities in return and turning them into the world-famous superheroes they eventually become. 

But that’s not all! The real-life Artemis II flight’s commander is NASA’s very own Reid Wiseman. His first name bears an uncanny resemblance to the Fantastic Four leader’s name, Reed Richards, which is basically a homophone. And the simple but eye-popping fact didn’t escape netizens’ attention either.

Comments like “ONE OF THEMS LITERALLY CALLED REID” and “The Commander’s name is Reid…” instantly flooded the trending thread.

The cherry on the cake was that the picture NASA used to promote the Artemis II mission online almost seemed to be the mirror image of the 2025 Fantastic Four: The First Steps cast members posing as the very-human astronauts they were right before mission launch.

Topping it all off, only one member is seen sitting on a chair in each picture. As it turns out, both the real and reel versions show the team leader taking the seat – Reid Wiseman in NASA’s real iteration and Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest Fantastic Four project. 

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About the Artemis II Moon mission

With the launch pad all set, engineers and technicians have now moved onto a decisive step before the rocket finally launches into space. The January 17 maneuver has now paved the way for what the officials call a ‘wet dress rehearsal,’ which will test fuelling operations and countdown procedures. 

When that is also accomplished, the rocket could officially blast off for its Moon-bound space jump as early as February 6.

If the stars fail to align in early February, NASA has also locked down other March and April dates as potential mission starters for the Artemis II’s – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. All four were present at the Kennedy Space Centre while the rocket was being moved on January 17.

While they may not possess superpowers in the Marvel sense of things, the real-world interstellar quartet has also ignited a new chapter in cosmic history, marking humanity’s return to the Moon after more than half-a-century. Artemis II is on its way to becoming the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 landed on it in December 1972.

On the contrary, the Artemis II is not scheduled to land on the Moon. However, it will most definitely sow the seeds for a potential lunar landing, which the Artemis III mission is expected to pursue “no earlier than” 2027. 

With humanity set to finally answer Moon’s call again thanks to these four astronauts, this particular outer space adventure has again given the world, especially the US, a reason to look up to the stars with hopeful eyes during dark times.