The government of Javier Milei has confirmed that Argentina will join NASA's Artemis II lunar mission through the Atenea microsatellite, a national development to be deployed in deep space. This involvement marks a milestone in international space cooperation and highlights the country's technical capabilities.
The Argentine government announced that the Atenea microsatellite will be part of the Artemis II mission, the first crewed flight around the Moon in over 50 years, since Apollo 17 in 1972. Developed by the National Commission for Space Activities (CONAE) in collaboration with VENG S.A., the Argentine Institute of Radioastronomy (IAR), the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), and universities such as the National University of La Plata (UNLP), the National University of San Martín (UNSAM), and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Buenos Aires (FIUBA), Atenea is a 12U CubeSat built entirely in Argentina.
The project was approved in December 2023, and the cooperation agreement with NASA was signed in May 2025, following an invitation from the U.S. agency. Atenea will be released in the first stage of the flight, measuring radiation in deep orbits, evaluating electronic and structural components in extreme conditions, capturing GPS data in distant trajectories, and validating long-range communication links. Its data will be shared with NASA to validate critical technologies.
The mission, scheduled for launch on February 6, 2026, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, involves astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch from NASA, and Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Orion spacecraft will orbit the Moon for about 10 days, reaching up to 72,000 kilometers from Earth, without landing, testing key systems for future Artemis missions.
The Secretary of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Darío Genua, celebrated the announcement: “In the coming weeks, Argentina will be part of a historic event. ATENEA, an Argentine microsatellite, will travel aboard NASA's Artemis II mission and go farther than any satellite.” The official communiqué emphasizes that this selection meets the most demanding aerospace quality standards and demonstrates Argentina's high level of technical capabilities.
