Before we sent humans to the moon on Apollo 11, there were a whole bunch of test flights that got progressively closer, so we could work out all the kinks and technical problems associated with landing on the moon.

The Gemini program was basically testing out basic things we would need to go to the moon: long endurance spaceflight, in-space rendezvous and formation flying, docking with another spacecraft, etc.

Then Apollo had a ton of flights before Apollo 11 (ten flights, plus the Apollo 1 disaster). Until Apollo 7 they were all uncrewed tests of the rockets, the capsules, the escape systems, etc.

Apollo 7 tested the command and service modules in space with an actual crew. They stayed in low earth orbit and did a full rundown of all the systems.

Apollo 8 carried the first humans to the moon. It was just the command and service modules with no lander, and orbited the moon before returning home.

Apollo 9 had a lunar lander as well, but stayed in low earth orbit, so the docking/undocking maneuvers could be tested and perfected and all the LM’s systems checked out.

Apollo 10 was everything but the landing, putting all the pieces together from the earlier flights and programs. They flew to the moon, orbited it, and had the first LM in lunar orbit with them, which they took down to just a few miles over the surface of the moon. It was a full dress rehearsal for the actual landing.

Artemis is just doing something similar.