After months of anticipation and a string of technical delays, NASA is finally set to launch the Artemis II mission—a bold, nine-day journey that will send four astronauts around the moon and back for the first time in over half a century. Scheduled for liftoff on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, at 6:24 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Artemis II marks a pivotal milestone in NASA’s ambitious plan to return humans to the lunar surface and lay the groundwork for future missions to Mars.
The Artemis II crew comprises commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, astronaut Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Hansen will make history as the first Canadian to leave Earth orbit, joining a team of space veterans—Wiseman, Glover, and Koch—all of whom have previously flown in space. As NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman put it, “America will never again give up the moon.”
Countdown officially began on March 30, with the launch team settling into their consoles at the Rocco Petrone Launch Control Center. Engineers immediately set to work powering up flight hardware, checking vital communication links, and prepping the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s cryogenic systems for the precise fueling sequence that will load hundreds of thousands of gallons of super-cooled liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Meanwhile, at Launch Pad 39B, teams have started filling the sound suppression system’s massive tank with water, readying for the protective deluge that will shield the rocket from the thunderous roar of its own engines at liftoff, according to NASA’s official mission updates.
The Artemis II crew has spent the final days in quarantine inside NASA Kennedy’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, following strict health protocols and a controlled sleep schedule to ensure peak readiness. “Hey, let’s go to the moon!” Wiseman exclaimed to a crowd of reporters at Kennedy Space Center. “I think the nation and the world has been waiting a long time to do this again.”
This mission is no mere repeat of Apollo. It’s a rigorous test flight, the first time humans will ride atop the SLS—the most powerful operational rocket in the world—and the first crewed flight of the Orion deep space capsule. The rocket itself weighs in at a staggering 5.7 million pounds at liftoff and will accelerate the Orion spacecraft to nearly 5 miles per second in just eight minutes. Two critical rocket firings after launch will send the crew into an elliptical orbit with a high point of 43,760 miles—higher than any astronauts have traveled since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, according to CBS News and NASA.
The Orion capsule, named Integrity, will separate from the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage about three hours and 23 minutes after launch. The crew will then spend 24 hours orbiting Earth, conducting a battery of tests on the capsule’s life support, navigation, and communication systems—including the less glamorous but essential “waste collection” trial. “When we get off the planet, we might come right back home. We might spend three or four days around Earth. We might go to the moon. That’s where we want to go, but it is a test mission, and we are ready for every scenario as we ride this amazing Space Launch System in the Orion spacecraft, 250,000 miles away. It’s going to be amazing!” Wiseman told reporters, underscoring the mission’s pioneering spirit.
If all goes according to plan, about 25 hours after launch, the crew will fire Orion’s main engine for a crucial six-minute maneuver known as the trans-lunar injection burn. This will push the spacecraft out of Earth’s orbit and begin a four-day coast to the moon. The Artemis II crew will follow a “free return” trajectory, passing within roughly 4,100 miles of the lunar surface before using lunar gravity to slingshot back toward Earth. This path ensures that, even if major propulsion or navigation systems fail, the crew will still make it home safely.
One of the mission’s most exciting prospects is the opportunity for the crew to become the first humans to see large swaths of the moon’s far side illuminated by sunlight. While Apollo astronauts glimpsed the far side in darkness, Artemis II’s trajectory and timing mean 21% of the far side will be in sunlight. “Of course, the moon has been imaged by so many remote sensing satellites, but there are actually places on the far side that have never been seen by human eyes. ... So hopefully, when we get there, we’ll be ready to take that on and still make the most of those couple hours we have,” Koch explained during a NASA briefing. Glover added, “Twenty-four men have seen the moon, and we’re going to send the first set of woman’s eyes. And there’s actually some differences, they think that she can potentially see colors that, you know, we (men) may not see.”
Artemis II will also set a new distance record for human spaceflight, with the crew expected to travel approximately 252,000 miles from Earth—about 4,000 miles farther than the Apollo 13 crew managed during their harrowing 1970 mission. This journey isn’t just about breaking records, though; it’s about paving the way for Artemis III and beyond, including a planned lunar landing near the moon’s south pole in 2028 and, eventually, sending astronauts to Mars.
The mission will wrap up with a dramatic, high-speed reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10, 2026. Orion will hit Earth’s atmosphere at about 25,000 mph—roughly 7 miles per second—protected by a heat shield that’s been rigorously tested since the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022. That earlier flight revealed unexpected damage to the capsule’s outer “char” layer, prompting NASA to tweak Artemis II’s reentry trajectory to avoid similar problems. “We can safely, and with high degrees of success, control that entry environment,” said Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator.
The capsule’s descent will be slowed by an intricate system of 11 parachutes, designed to bring the crew home even if one drogue or main chute fails. If all goes well, the astronauts will splash down at a gentle 15 to 17 mph. Recovery teams will then airlift Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen from the Pacific, whisking them to a waiting Navy ship for initial medical checks before returning them to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for debriefing. The Orion capsule will be hauled aboard for detailed analysis, its data fueling the next phase of lunar exploration.
As the world watches, Artemis II stands as a testament to international cooperation, technological ingenuity, and the enduring human drive to explore. “It’s a test flight, and we have to be willing to take that risk,” Hansen reflected. “And if we do, that shouldn’t shock us. The most important thing we do next is we stack the next rocket, and we’d let the next four volunteers get on top of it and go.”
With weather forecasts holding steady at an 80% chance of favorable conditions and final checks underway, NASA’s Artemis II mission is poised to make history once again—lighting the way for a new era of lunar discovery and, perhaps one day, the first human footsteps on Mars.