Launch is scheduled for no earlier than April, 2026. The 10-day mission will carry NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a free-return trajectory around the Moon and back to Earth. Glover will become the first person of color, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American to travel to the Moon. The flight will take the crew farther from Earth than any previous human mission before reentering Earth’s atmosphere at a record speed of approximately 40,000 km/h. Artemis II was originally designated Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) and was initially intended to support the now-canceled Asteroid Redirect Mission. Its objectives were revised following the establishment of the Artemis program. The Artemis II mission plan is to send four astronauts in the first crewed Orion spacecraft into a lunar flyby using the Block 1 variant of the Space Launch System. The mission profile is a multi-trans-lunar injection (MTLI), or multiple departure burns, and includes a free-return trajectory from the Moon. The Orion spacecraft will be sent to a high Earth orbit with a period of roughly 24 hours. During this time the crew will perform various checkouts of the spacecraft’s life support systems as well as an in-space rendezvous and proximity operations demonstration using the spent Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) as a target. When Orion reaches perigee once again, it will fire its main engine to complete the TLI maneuver, which will send it onto a lunar free-return trajectory, before returning to Earth. Artemis II will test and demonstrate optical communications to and from Earth using the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O). The O2O hardware will be integrated into the Orion spacecraft and includes an optical module (a 100 mm telescope and two gimbals), a modem and control electronics. O2O will communicate with ground stations in California and New Mexico. The test device will send data to Earth with a downlink rate of up to 260 megabits per second.
NASA concluded a wet dress rehearsal for the agency’s Artemis II test flight early Tuesday morning February 3, 2026, successfully loading cryogenic propellant into the SLS (Space Launch System) tanks, sending a team out to the launch pad to closeout Orion, and safely draining the rocket. The wet dress rehearsal was a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket, designed to identify any issues and resolve them before attempting a launch. Engineers pushed through several challenges during the two-day test and met many of the planned objectives. To allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal. NASA will roll the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for Artemis II off the launch pad at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as Tuesday, Feb. 24. On Feb. 21, managers decided to remove recently installed platforms before high winds descend on the Space Coast, which poised teams for rollback while discussions about the issue were ongoing. Returning to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy is required to determine the cause of the issue and fix it. Once NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft arrived at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) Feb. 25, technicians immediately began addressing why the flow of helium to the SLS upper stage was interrupted as engineers were reconfiguring the rocket following a successful wet dress rehearsal on Feb. 21. To make the repairs, teams are installing two sets of internal access platforms inside the launch vehicle stage adapter and must remove thermal blankets that cover the area they are interested in – a point on the rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion system, or upper stage. The area provides connections for multiple umbilicals, including tubing used to fill the upper stage with helium. Helium is used to maintain proper environmental conditions, and to pressurize the stage for flight.
On Friday, March 20, NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft arrived at Launch Pad 39B after an 11-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s crawler-transporter 2 began its 6 km trek with the integrated SLS and Orion stacked on top of the mobile launcher at 18:20 CEST. The crawler carried the Moon rocket and spacecraft slowly and steadily toward the pad. At Pad 39B, NASA teams were gearing up for the final stretch of prelaunch preparations ahead of launch as soon as Thursday, April 2 at 00:24 CEST. The early April launch window includes opportunities through Monday, April 6. NASA’s SLS rocket lifted off at 00:35 CEST Wednesday April 2 sending four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft on a planned test flight around the Moon and back. After the mission management team polled “Go” Thursday, NASA’s Orion spacecraft fired its main engine for five minutes and 50 seconds beginning April 3 at 01:49 CEST, to successfully complete the translunar injection (TLI) burn, sending the crew in Orion out of Earth orbit and on a trajectory toward the Moon. On April 7, the Artemis II mission wrapped up a seven-hour lunar flyby, marking humanity’s first return to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and capturing images of the lunar far side. The momentous day began at 01:02:51 CEST as the astronauts set the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by any human. During a planned 40-minute loss of signal as Orion passed behind the Moon, the spacecraft and its crew made their closest approach at 01:00:46 CEST, flying at about 6544 kilometer above the surface. Two minutes later, the crew reached the mission’s maximum distance from Earth at 406.771 km, setting a new record for human spaceflight. The Orion spacecraft is scheduled to splash down off the coast of San Diego at approximately 02:07 on Saturday, April 11 (CEST).
Artemis II is a planned lunar spaceflight mission under the Artemis program, led by NASA. It is intended to be the second flight of the Space Launch System (SLS), and is both the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft and the first crewed mission to the vicinity of the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Launch is scheduled for no earlier than April, 2026. The 10-day mission will carry NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a free-return trajectory around the Moon and back to Earth. Glover will become the first person of color, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American to travel to the Moon. The flight will take the crew farther from Earth than any previous human mission before reentering Earth’s atmosphere at a record speed of approximately 40,000 km/h. Artemis II was originally designated Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) and was initially intended to support the now-canceled Asteroid Redirect Mission. Its objectives were revised following the establishment of the Artemis program. The Artemis II mission plan is to send four astronauts in the first crewed Orion spacecraft into a lunar flyby using the Block 1 variant of the Space Launch System. The mission profile is a multi-trans-lunar injection (MTLI), or multiple departure burns, and includes a free-return trajectory from the Moon. The Orion spacecraft will be sent to a high Earth orbit with a period of roughly 24 hours. During this time the crew will perform various checkouts of the spacecraft’s life support systems as well as an in-space rendezvous and proximity operations demonstration using the spent Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) as a target. When Orion reaches perigee once again, it will fire its main engine to complete the TLI maneuver, which will send it onto a lunar free-return trajectory, before returning to Earth. Artemis II will test and demonstrate optical communications to and from Earth using the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O). The O2O hardware will be integrated into the Orion spacecraft and includes an optical module (a 100 mm telescope and two gimbals), a modem and control electronics. O2O will communicate with ground stations in California and New Mexico. The test device will send data to Earth with a downlink rate of up to 260 megabits per second.
NASA concluded a wet dress rehearsal for the agency’s Artemis II test flight early Tuesday morning February 3, 2026, successfully loading cryogenic propellant into the SLS (Space Launch System) tanks, sending a team out to the launch pad to closeout Orion, and safely draining the rocket. The wet dress rehearsal was a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket, designed to identify any issues and resolve them before attempting a launch. Engineers pushed through several challenges during the two-day test and met many of the planned objectives. To allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal. NASA will roll the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for Artemis II off the launch pad at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as Tuesday, Feb. 24. On Feb. 21, managers decided to remove recently installed platforms before high winds descend on the Space Coast, which poised teams for rollback while discussions about the issue were ongoing. Returning to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy is required to determine the cause of the issue and fix it. Once NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft arrived at the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) Feb. 25, technicians immediately began addressing why the flow of helium to the SLS upper stage was interrupted as engineers were reconfiguring the rocket following a successful wet dress rehearsal on Feb. 21. To make the repairs, teams are installing two sets of internal access platforms inside the launch vehicle stage adapter and must remove thermal blankets that cover the area they are interested in – a point on the rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion system, or upper stage. The area provides connections for multiple umbilicals, including tubing used to fill the upper stage with helium. Helium is used to maintain proper environmental conditions, and to pressurize the stage for flight.
On Friday, March 20, NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft arrived at Launch Pad 39B after an 11-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s crawler-transporter 2 began its 6 km trek with the integrated SLS and Orion stacked on top of the mobile launcher at 18:20 CEST. The crawler carried the Moon rocket and spacecraft slowly and steadily toward the pad. At Pad 39B, NASA teams were gearing up for the final stretch of prelaunch preparations ahead of launch as soon as Thursday, April 2 at 00:24 CEST. The early April launch window includes opportunities through Monday, April 6. NASA’s SLS rocket lifted off at 00:35 CEST Wednesday April 2 sending four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft on a planned test flight around the Moon and back. After the mission management team polled “Go” Thursday, NASA’s Orion spacecraft fired its main engine for five minutes and 50 seconds beginning April 3 at 01:49 CEST, to successfully complete the translunar injection (TLI) burn, sending the crew in Orion out of Earth orbit and on a trajectory toward the Moon. On April 7, the Artemis II mission wrapped up a seven-hour lunar flyby, marking humanity’s first return to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and capturing images of the lunar far side. The momentous day began at 01:02:51 CEST as the astronauts set the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by any human. During a planned 40-minute loss of signal as Orion passed behind the Moon, the spacecraft and its crew made their closest approach at 01:00:46 CEST, flying at about 6544 kilometer above the surface. Two minutes later, the crew reached the mission’s maximum distance from Earth at 406.771 km, setting a new record for human spaceflight. The Orion spacecraft is scheduled to splash down off the coast of San Diego at approximately 02:07 on Saturday, April 11 (CEST).
Links:
Artemis II, at NASA
Mission Overview, at NASA
Artemis II “Send Your Name to Space”, at NASA
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