After over three years, it's finally time for another Artemis launch!
(And the first "Launch Thread" of this community!)
| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2026-04-01, 22:35:12 | |
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| | Scheduled for (local) | 2026-04-01, 18:35:12 (EDT) | | Mission | Artemis II | | Launch site | LC-39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA | | Vehicle | SLS Block 1 | | Commander | Reid Wiseman ๐บ๐ธ| | Pilot | Victor Glover ๐บ๐ธ| | Mission Specialist 1 | Christina Koch ๐บ๐ธ| | Mission Specialist 2 | Jeremy Hansen ๐จ๐ฆ| | Target Orbit | High Earth Orbit, lunar free return trajectory |
Livestreams
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| | NASA YouTube | launch, live mission coverage, postlaunch news conference, coast | NASA+ | launch | NASASpaceflight | stakeout, launch | Space Affairs | tanking, launch | SpaceflightNow | fueling, launch | The Launch Pad | launch | Everyday Astronaut | launch | International Rocket Launches | launch
Stats
Sourced from NextSpaceflight:
โ๏ธ 1st launch from LC-39B this year
โ๏ธ 1232 days, 15:36:16 turnaround for this pad
โ๏ธ 1st SLS launch this year, 2nd overall
โ๏ธ 1st crewed launch of the Orion spacecraft, 3rd overall
โ๏ธ 1st crewed launch beyond LEO since Apollo 17 in 1972, 10th crewed launch beyond LEO overall
Mission info
Artemis II will send four astronauts in the first crewed Orion capsule in a lunar free return trajectory for a 10-day mission. The commander of the mission is Reid Weisman (NASA), the pilot Victor Glover (NASA), and the two mission specialists are Christina Koch (NASA) and Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency, CSA). Christina Koch will become the first woman to venture beyond Low Earth Orbit, and Jeremy Hansen will become the first non-American to achieve the milestone. The Orion capsule used in this mission, CM-003, was named Integrity by the Artemis II astronauts.
Because of the hydrogen boil-off due to the increased time spent in a LEO parking orbit compared to Artemis I, the mission will use a multi-translunar injection (MTLI), or multiple departure burns, to perform the translunar injection burn. The burn will be partially completed by the ICPS 2nd stage before being fully completed by the European Service Module (ESM) on the following orbit.
Artemis II Cubesats
4 CubeSat missions were selected as secondary payloads on Artemis II. They will reside within the Orion Stage Adapter from which they will be deployed after Orion has separated.
The selected cubesats are:
- TACHELES from the German space agency DLR
- ATENEA from Argentinaโs space agency CONAE
- K-RadCube from the Korea AeroSpace Administration
- Space Weather CubeSat-1 from the Saudi Space Agency
Feel free to post launch updates, discussions, questions, etc. in the comments!
So what do the astronauts actually do the entire time?
Since NASA is perfectly capable of flying the spacecraft unmanned on the same mission?
Eh, they'll be doing a mix of science, public outreach, and testing systems on the spacecraft.
While Orion can fly uncrewed just fine (after all, that's what Artemis I was), there are some observations which are easier to make with a human in the loop.
Scott Manley has a nice walkthrough of the whole mission. Some activities: do experiments, use exercise equipment, try out docking maneuvers, practice recognizing / photographing features on the lunar surface as they fly by (essentially as ^ said).