Artemis II: Everything You Need To Know

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Today, April 1st 2026, NASA is finally launching Artemis II — the first crewed mission beyond Low Earth Orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. After years of delays, hydrogen leaks and scrubbed countdowns, the launch window opens at 6:24 PM ET from Kennedy Space Center. In this article, I’ll take you through everything you need to know about this historic mission — the crew, the rocket, the spacecraft, and the fascinating journey to the Moon and back.

The Big Picture

Artemis II, named after the Greek goddess of the moon, is the first crewed mission beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) since Apollo 17 in 1972, making it one of, if not the most historically significant launches in over half a century. As early as today, the rocket carrying the four-person crew will blast off the launchpad and bring humanity back to the moon.

The goal of this mission is to conduct the first crewed flight test of the Orion spacecraft, sitting atop the SLS rocket. This means; validating life-support systems, navigation and human endurance are the main focus points of Artemis II.

NASA is targeting liftoff today, April 1, with a two-hour launch window opening at 6:24 PM ET from Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters currently predict an 80% chance of favorable weather conditions.

After a journey of about four days, the spacecraft will perform a Lunar flyby and head on a trajectory straight back to earth, before beginning their return to earth.

The Road to this iconic launch was a bumpy one. The mission originally targeted launch in November 2024, then slipped to September 2025, then February 2026. Launches were scrubbed in both February and March 2026 due to hydrogen leaks and a helium flow issue. SLS was rolled back to the assembly building to address these critical issues.

The Crew

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The crew selected for this historic mission consists of four extremely experienced astronauts. This crew also carries enormous symbolic weight. Koch becomes the first woman, Glover the first person of colour, and Hansen the first non-American to travel beyond Low Earth Orbit.

Reid Wiseman will take the role of commander upon himself, he is responsible for the crew and spacecraft safety and acts as the final authority onboard.

Pilot Victor Glover is tasked with operating the spacecraft in critical moments, including; launch, orbit transfer and reentry.

Lastly, mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are in charge of conducting scientific experiments and managing complex payloads.

The Rocket

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The rocket specifically designed for NASA’s comeback to the moon is the SLS (Space Launch System). This is a powerful rocket created by many contractors, such as Boeing, ULA and many more.

The SLS Block 1 consists of a core stage, two five-segment solid rocket boosters, and an upper stage. The core stage uses four RS-25 engines, all of which previously flew on Space Shuttle missions.

The upper stage, called the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), plays a particularly clever role in Artemis II. Because of hydrogen boil-off due to the increased time spent in a low Earth orbit parking orbit compared to Artemis I, the mission uses a multi-translunar injection — multiple departure burns — to complete the translunar injection. The burn is partially completed by the ICPS second stage, then fully completed by the European Service Module on the following orbit. In other words, it takes two separate engine firings working together to sling Orion toward the Moon.

The capsule

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Orion, built by Lockheed Martin, has two main parts. It consists of a crew module where the astronauts live and work, and a European-built service module that provides propulsion, power, and thermal control.

The crew module itself is named “Integrity”, chosen by the astronauts themselves. It can accommodate four astronauts — one more than Apollo — and offers greater internal volume for extended missions. Life in there isn’t glamorous though: astronauts will spend the mission in a tightly packed cabin, relying on pre-packed food, wall-mounted sleeping bags, and a small onboard toilet.

The Trajectory

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Phase 1 — Parking orbit & checkouts. After launch, Orion is placed into a high Earth orbit with a period of roughly 24 hours. During this time the crew performs checkouts of the spacecraft’s life support systems, as well as a rendezvous and proximity operations demonstration using the spent ICPS upper stage as a target.

Phase 2 — The Trans-Lunar Injection. About 25 hours after launch, the service module’s main engine fires for six minutes and five seconds, boosting the ship’s velocity by about 900 mph — just enough to push it out of Earth’s orbit and begin the four-day journey to the Moon.

Phase 3 — Free-return trajectory. This is the mission’s genius safety net. The TLI sends Orion on a trajectory resembling the number 8, using the Earth-Moon gravitational field to pull the crew back to their splashdown site without any additional major burns. This free-return trajectory means the spacecraft can return to Earth even in the event of a major system failure. No thruster? No problem, physics does the work.

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Phase 4 — The lunar flyby. Orion will fly around the Moon at a closest approach of approximately 4,047 miles from the far-side lunar surface. This is still a lot more than the Apollo missions, who reached an average altitude of 68 miles. The crew will then swing out to a maximum distance of approximately 4,700 miles beyond the Moon, a record-breaking distance for any crewed spaceflight. The Artemis II crew is expected to beat the Apollo 13 distance record of 248,655 miles from Earth by about 4,000 miles, setting a new record of approximately 252,000 miles.

Phase 5 — Re-entry & splashdown. Around 20 minutes before re-entry, the Orion capsule separates from the European Service Module. Then comes the fiery plunge: moving at around 25,000 mph, the capsule slams into the discernible atmosphere about 75 miles above the Pacific Ocean, engulfed in a massive fireball as its heat shield endures temperatures as high as 5,000°F. At 25,000 feet, two drogue parachutes each 23 feet in diameter unfurl and slow the capsule to around 307 mph. Then at around 9,500 feet, three main 116-foot-wide parachutes deploy, slowing the capsule to just 17 mph for splashdown.

What Comes Next?

A recent update to the Artemis programme structure changed Artemis III to another demonstration mission, with an actual human Moon landing now planned for Artemis IV. NASA also sidelined the Lunar Gateway orbital station and is now focusing on building infrastructure directly on the Moon’s surface.

For those who are eager to know more and perhaps watch the launch. A link to the livestream and live tracker can be found below:
stream:
https://www.youtube.com/live/m3kR2KK8TEs?si=R0UlxM2nZDcIw_aJ
tracker:
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/artemis-2/track-nasas-artemis-ii-mission-in-real-time/