Artemis II Launches: Humanity Returns to Deep Space After 50 Years

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NASA’s Artemis II mission has officially launched, marking America’s return to crewed deep-space exploration after more than five decades. Riding atop the Space Launch System rocket, four astronauts are now headed on a 10-day journey around the Moon aboard Orion. The mission is designed to test every major system needed for future lunar landings, including life support, navigation, and reentry. Artemis II is the first major step toward Artemis III, which is expected to return astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade.

  • NASA successfully launched Artemis II from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1, 2026, after a brief delay from the original 6:24 p.m. target.
  • The mission is the first crewed journey beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years.
  • The four-person crew consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Glover is the first Black astronaut on a lunar mission, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American.
  • Artemis II will last about 10 days and send Orion on a free-return trajectory around the Moon before splashing down in the Pacific. The mission will not land on the lunar surface.
  • Minor launch issues involving the launch abort system battery temperature sensor and flight termination system checks were resolved before NASA gave a unanimous “GO” for launch.
  • The mission is a critical test of Orion’s life support, navigation, manual control, and high-speed reentry systems ahead of future Artemis missions that aim to return astronauts to the Moon and eventually establish a long-term presence there.

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