====================================================================== = Artemis II = ====================================================================== Introduction ====================================================================== Artemis II is a ten-day lunar flyby mission that launched on April 1, 2026. With a crew of four astronauts, it is the first crewed flight of the NASA-led Artemis program and the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Artemis II is the second flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) and the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft, named 'Integrity' by the crew. The mission is a test flight supporting subsequent Artemis missions aimed at returning humans to the lunar surface. Originally designated Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) and intended to support the now-canceled Asteroid Redirect Mission, its objectives were revised after the establishment of the Artemis program in 2017. Artemis II's mission objectives are similar to those of Apollo 8 in 1968, the first crewed lunar flight during the Apollo program. However, its free-return trajectory more closely resembles that flown by Apollo 13 in 1970. During the mission, Victor Glover (an African American) became the first person of color, Christina Koch the first woman, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen the first non-U.S. citizen, and commander Reid Wiseman the oldest person to travel beyond low Earth orbit and near the Moon. During their lunar flyby, the crew set the record for human distance from Earth, 252756 mi, breaking Apollo 13's record of 248655 mi. Mission planning and launch date selection (2017–2021) ======================================================== In 2017, Exploration Mission-2 was planned as a single-launch flight of a Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1B rocket equipped with the Exploration Upper Stage, carrying a lunar Block 1 Orion spacecraft, and a payload capacity of 50.7 t. The mission concept involved rendezvousing with an asteroid that would have been placed in lunar orbit by the robotic Asteroid Redirect Mission, allowing astronauts to conduct spacewalks and collect samples. After the Asteroid Redirect Mission was cancelled in April 2017, NASA proposed an alternative mission involving an eight‑day free-return trajectory around the Moon with a crew of four astronauts. Another 2017 proposal suggested sending four astronauts aboard Orion on an 8‑ to 21‑day lunar mission to deliver the first element of the planned Lunar Gateway space station. This proposal did not come to fruition, and in March 2018, NASA decided that the Gateway's initial module would instead launch on a commercial rocket due to delays in constructing the Mobile Launcher required for the more powerful Exploration Upper Stage. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy was selected as the launch vehicle. However, the Lunar Gateway program was cancelled in March 2026. Hardware development, testing and integration (2021–2026) =========================================================== On February 11, 2023, NASA rotated the Artemis II core stage's engine section to a horizontal position, marking the final major milestone before integration with the rest of the vehicle. On March 20, the engine section was mated with the core stage in Building 103 at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana. In March 2023, NASA initially expected to deliver the completed core stage to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) that summer, but by May, the timeline had shifted to late autumn 2023. The four RS-25 engines (serial numbers E2047, E2059, E2062, and E2063) were installed on the core stage by September 25, 2023. After a leak was discovered in the oxygen‑valve hydraulics, engine E2063 was replaced with E2061 in April 2025. The fully outfitted core stage was delivered to KSC between July 16 and 25, 2024. The adapters required for integration of the full launch vehicle reached substantial completion in June 2024 and arrived at KSC in September 2024. The Artemis II crew was announced on April 3, 2023, by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during his "State of NASA" address at a NASA facility at Ellington Field outside Houston, Texas, and the crew made a public appearance that evening at nearby NRG Stadium during the 2023 March Madness basketball championship game. NASA had originally targeted September 2024 to begin rocket-stacking operations. However, the schedule was delayed by more than two months due to investigations into issues with Orion's life-support system and unexpected heat-shield damage observed after the Artemis I reentry. Rocket stacking began on November 20, 2024. Stacking was completed on October 20, 2025, with the installation of the fully integrated Orion spacecraft, ESM, and launch abort system atop the SLS rocket. Heat shield concerns ====================== After the uncrewed Artemis I mission in November 2022, NASA identified unexpected erosion of the Orion spacecraft's ablative heat shield following atmospheric reentry. Post-flight inspections found areas of char loss in the AVCOAT ablative material, in which portions of the material eroded more extensively than predicted by preflight models. NASA reported that temperatures inside the crew module remained within design limits, but the unanticipated behavior prompted further analysis. Close-up imagery of the damage was not publicly released until May 2024, when it appeared in a report issued by the NASA Office of Inspector General. In April 2024, NASA established an independent review team to assess the heat‑shield performance and the agency's proposed approach for the Artemis II mission. The review concluded in December 2024, after which NASA announced that it would proceed with Artemis II using the existing heat shield. NASA held a press briefing to outline its findings, but the publicly released version of the review team's report was heavily redacted, prompting criticism from some former NASA engineers and astronauts regarding the level of disclosure. NASA engineers determined that the char loss observed during Artemis I was caused by gases becoming trapped within the AVCOAT material, leading to cracking and localized material loss during reentry. Rather than replacing the heat shield for Artemis II, NASA modified the reentry trajectory by increasing the descent angle, reducing the time the spacecraft would spend in the thermal environment associated with the damage. According to NASA, modeling and ground testing indicated that this change would limit further char loss while remaining within structural and thermal margins. As part of the certification process for Artemis II, NASA conducted additional testing and analysis, including evaluations of scenarios involving more extensive heat-shield damage. NASA stated that these analyses showed the underlying structure of the Orion capsule would remain intact and capable of protecting the crew under conditions exceeding those expected during the mission's reentry. In January 2026, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated that he supported proceeding with Artemis II using the existing heat shield after reviewing the agency's analysis and meeting with engineers and outside experts. Some participants who had previously expressed concerns indicated that the additional data addressed their questions, while others continued to object to flying the mission without a redesigned heat shield. NASA has stated that design changes addressing AVCOAT permeability are planned for the heat shield intended for Artemis III. Mission delays ================ During preliminary reviews in 2011, the launch date was placed somewhere between 2019 and 2021, but afterwards the launch date was delayed to 2023. In January 2024, the mission was expected to launch in September 2025. However, in October 2024, the NASA Office of Inspector General determined that the Exploration Ground Systems team had exhausted their time reserved for resolving any unforeseen issues, leading the office to determine that the September 2025 launch date would likely be delayed. In December 2024, outgoing administrator Nelson announced that the launch was delayed due to the months of engineering investigations into issues with the life support system and heat shield, but they were targeting a launch in April 2026. In March 2025, 'AmericaSpace' reported that the launch date could be accelerated by two months to February 2026. NASA responded in a statement, saying it could not confirm the revised date but noted, "We're looking for ways to enable an earlier launch if possible, potentially launching as soon as February 2026. A February target allows the agency to capitalize on efficiencies in the flow of operations to integrate the SLS rocket, Orion spacecraft, and supporting ground systems while maintaining crew safety as the top priority." By August 2025, more mainstream outlets such as NASASpaceflight, journalist Eric Berger and U.S. Senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly also reported that the mission had been moved to February 2026. In September, space agency officials announced that they were pursuing a launch window that opened on February 5, 2026. For the launch of lunar missions, there are both monthly windows of a few days duration each lunar month, and daily windows lasting a few hours on days within the monthly window. The revised Artemis II plan, which called for Orion to conduct a shorter skip reentry, further constrained the days within a monthly window during which a launch could be conducted. The earliest launch window for Artemis II was set for early February 2026. The January 2026 North American winter storm delayed preparations for the launch. On January 18, 2026, the integrated SLS rocket, Orion capsule, and launch tower were rolled out from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39B. A wet dress rehearsal of the countdown occurred February 2. After the test, NASA announced that the launch would be postponed to March due to a liquid hydrogen leak that occurred during the simulated countdown. In addition to the leak, a valve associated with Orion crew module hatch pressurization required retorquing, and closeout operations took longer than planned. A second wet dress rehearsal occurred on February 19 and was successful. On February 21, a helium flow issue was observed, triggering a rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and delaying the mission to April. The rollback began on February 25 at 9:38 am EST and arrived at the VAB at about 8:00 pm. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that an actual launch date was to be confirmed only after a successful wet dress rehearsal was complete and the results were analyzed. Launch scheduling =================== On March 12, after a Flight Readiness Review (FRR), seven two-hour launch windows were announced for April 1-6 and April 30, with the first launch window being on April 1, 2026. On March 18, NASA announced that the Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft would be rolled out the next day to Launch Pad 39B at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Meanwhile, the Artemis II crew entered quarantine in Houston, Texas to ensure they remained healthy ahead of the launch. On March 20, after a delay due to high winds, the SLS was rolled out from the VAB to launch pad 39B a second time. Crew ====================================================================== Artemis II is crewed by four astronauts: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Koch, all from the NASA Astronaut Corps, along with mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Astronaut Corps. On November 22, 2023, Jenni Gibbons was named as Hansen's backup, and on July 3, 2024, Andre Douglas was named backup for the three NASA astronauts. Glover would become the first person of color, Koch the first woman, Wiseman the oldest person, and Hansen the first non-American to travel around the Moon. Hansen and Gibbons, both from Canada, were selected by the Canadian Space Agency as part of a 2020 treaty between the United States and Canada that facilitated their participation in the Artemis program. This mission broke the record for the most people in deep space at once, set at three during Apollo 8 in 1968. Mission ====================================================================== Artemis II's mission is a crewed flight test with four astronauts evaluating the performance of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket along with the Orion spacecraft and its European Service Module (ESM) in deep space. The first day of the mission was spent largely in high Earth orbit, where the crew conducted system checkouts. Orion operated in a highly elliptical, high Earth orbit with a period of roughly 24 hours, allowing extended testing of onboard systems. During this phase, the crew evaluated life support and other critical spacecraft systems, and performed a rendezvous and proximity operations demonstration using the spent Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) as a target. After NASA mission managers confirmed Orion's performance, the spacecraft executed a trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn to depart Earth orbit. Orion then traveled toward the Moon on a free-return trajectory, looping around the far side before naturally returning toward Earth on a free-return trajectory without requiring additional propulsion for the return leg. Notably, the crew received "wake-up calls" from Mission Control on every day of the flight, a NASA tradition since the Apollo missions, consisting of music designed to keep the crew on a steady rhythm and boost morale and inspirational speeches recorded specifically for the flight, including messages from Apollo astronauts Charlie Duke and Jim Lovell. Artemis II's trajectory can be divided into several key phases, over an approximately ten-day trip: Launch ======== The crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center on March 27, and the launch countdown began on March 30. The mission launched aboard an SLS rocket on April 1 from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B at 22:35:12 UTC (6:35:12 p.m. EDT, local time at the launch site). It was the first crewed launch from LC-39B since STS-116 in 2006. The four RS-25 main engines on the core stage ignited approximately seven seconds before liftoff; after their performance was confirmed at full power, the solid rocket boosters, whose ignition cannot be reversed, ignited at T-0, providing the majority of thrust during the first two minutes. Booster separation occurred at roughly and an altitude of . The boosters subsequently splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean about six minutes after launch and were not recovered. Wiseman monitored the launch from the left seat of Orion at the primary controls. The flight was fully automated, and no crew intervention was required, though Wiseman would have been able to issue an abort command if necessary. The core stage burned for about eight minutes before separation, leaving Orion in a highly elliptical orbit with an apogee of roughly , nearly five times higher than the International Space Station, but a suborbital perigee. The ICPS upper stage did not fire during the initial ascent. The core stage made a destructive reentry over the Pacific Ocean approximately two hours after launch. High Earth orbit and systems checkout ======================================= Immediately after main-engine cutoff, Koch and Hansen unstrapped from their seats to set up and test essential life support systems aboard the spacecraft, including the water dispenser, firefighting masks, and toilet. All systems checked out (after the crew resolved minor issues with the toilet and water dispenser), giving mission managers the confidence to proceed with the ICPS burn at apogee, about 50 minutes after liftoff, to raise Orion's perigee. Prior to this burn, Orion's perigee was suborbital, a deliberate safety measure that would have ensured a natural reentry in the event of a major anomaly. The ICPS burn raised the perigee out of the atmosphere, placing the spacecraft into a stable low Earth orbit. When the spacecraft reached this new perigee about an hour later, it executed a 15-minute burn to raise its next apogee to 44000 mi, establishing a 23.5-hour high Earth orbit. This marked the first time a crewed spacecraft had entered a high Earth orbit without proceeding directly to the Moon. After this burn, which consumed nearly all the fuel in the ICPS, the Orion and ESM separated from the upper stage. The crew then conducted a "proximity operations" demonstration using the ICPS as a target. Over approximately 70 minutes, Glover, now in the left seat of Orion, took manual control of the spacecraft and performed a series of maneuvers to evaluate handling qualities and practice techniques for future docking operations. The ICPS was equipped with a docking target, enabling tests of Orion's ability to manually maneuver relative to another spacecraft using onboard navigation sensors and reaction control thrusters. Following the demonstration, Orion returned to automated control while the ICPS performed a deorbit burn for destructive reentry over the Pacific Ocean, deploying its rideshare CubeSats during this phase. After these operations, the crew reconfigured the cabin for spaceflight, set up their flywheel exercise device and used it to conduct a life-support system stress test through physical activity, and had dinner. The first sleep period was divided into two four-hour segments, interrupted to monitor a 43-second burn by the European Service Module that raised the spacecraft's perigee again to prepare for a trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn. Following the burn, the astronauts returned to sleep while NASA managers reviewed spacecraft performance before authorizing the TLI burn. Trans-lunar injection and outbound flight =========================================== On flight day 2, after completing high Earth orbit operations and system verification, the crew was authorized to perform a 5-minute, 49-second TLI burn using the main AJ10 engine of the ESM. The maneuver consumed about of hypergolic propellants and placed the spacecraft on a free-return trajectory, allowing it to loop around the Moon and return to Earth without further propulsion, aside from minor course corrections. On flight day 3, the first of three planned outbound trajectory correction burns was deemed unnecessary after Mission Control determined the spacecraft was already on a favorable trajectory. The crew also encountered a space toilet issue when urine froze in the vent lines, preventing it from being dumped into space; it was resolved using vent heaters and by rotating the spacecraft to expose the vent to sunlight. On flight day 4, Koch and Hansen took turns manually controlling the spacecraft to evaluate its performance in deep space. Over 41 minutes, they tested two thruster control modes (six degrees of freedom and three degrees of freedom) to provide engineers with further data and perspectives on the spacecraft's handling qualities. On flight day 5, Orion performed a -second outbound trajectory correction burn to refine its path to the Moon. Of the three planned outbound correction burns, this was the only one executed. The crew also tested their Orion Crew Survival System suits and conferred with mission control to review lunar surface targets for observation and photography during the flyby and finalize observation techniques. Lunar fly-by and return flight ================================ On flight day 6, Orion entered the Moon's sphere of influence, where lunar gravity became the dominant force shaping its trajectory. Orion flew around the Moon at a closest approach of about 4067 mi from the far-side lunar surface at 23:00 UTC on April 6. Its farthest distance from Earth was 252756 mi at 23:02 UTC, and it surpassed Apollo 13's 248655 mi record as the farthest crewed mission from Earth at 17:56 UTC. As the crew passed behind the Moon, Orion experienced a planned loss of signal for 40 minutes, beginning at 22:46 UTC, and recovered signals from Earth at 23:24 UTC. During their fly-by, the crew observed two unnamed craters which they proposed be named 'Integrity', after their spacecraft, and 'Carroll', after Wiseman's late wife. After the blackout, the Orion experienced a solar eclipse. It lasted for 57 minutes, beginning at 01:35 UTC and lasting until 02:32 UTC. The crew donned eclipse glasses until the Sun was fully obscured, after which they observed both the solar corona as well as "impact flashes" from meteoroids impacting the dark portion of the Moon. Stars and planets, including Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury, were visible alongside the corona, as was earthshine illuminating the Moon. On flight day 7, Orion and its crew exited the Moon's sphere of influence and began their return to Earth on a free-return trajectory. The crew conducted a 15-minute audio-only call with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, and Chris Williams, and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot aboard the International Space Station. Afterwards, they debriefed with NASA science officers on their lunar observations while memories of the flyby were still fresh. The remainder of the day included staggered off-duty periods for rest ahead of final return preparations. The day concluded with a 15-second trajectory correction burn, the first of three expected to refine the path of the spacecraft toward Earth. Re-entry and splashdown ========================= On flight day 10, Orion is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at about . The mission was initially planned to use a "skip reentry", briefly dipping into the upper atmosphere to generate lift, dissipate energy, and improve landing precision, but this was replaced with a steeper entry profile following heat shield erosion observed during Artemis I. Splashdown is planned for April 11, 2026, 00:07 UTC (April 10, 5:07 p.m. PDT), in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California, where the U.S. Navy will recover the crew. NASA confirmed on April 7, 2026 (flight day 7) that the had left its home port at Naval Base San Diego for the recovery site. After crew egress, the Orion capsule is planned to be recovered by the Navy, and the astronauts are expected to undergo medical evaluation. They are also scheduled to complete post-landing functional tests, including an obstacle course and a simulated spacewalk, to assess how quickly they can adapt to gravity following the mission and in preparation for future lunar and Mars operations. Experiments ====================================================================== The mission includes a payload titled AVATAR (A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response) which can mimic individual astronaut organs, marking the first time that AVATAR has been tested outside of the International Space Station and Earth's Van Allen Belt. Crew health for this mission is critical for missions in deep space in the future. The mission also includes a new payload titled ARCHeR (Artemis Research for Crew Health & Readiness). For ARCHeR, crew members will wear movement and sleep monitors before, during, and after the mission to study real-time health and behavioral information for crew members so scientists can study sleep patterns and overall health performance. Scientists plan to test immunity biomarkers, with crew providing saliva samples before, during, and after the mission to test their immune system and how they are affected by radiation, isolation, and the distance away from Earth during deep space flight. This mission also intends to allow astronauts and scientists to understand space weather that will be faced in future missions, as well as how humans can survive and sustain themselves in space. Optical communications ====================================================================== Artemis II is testing and demonstrating optical communications to and from Earth using the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O), which uses laser beams. Such an optical system can be smaller and lighter than conventional radio and can use less power, while increasing the rate of transmission. The O2O hardware is integrated into the Orion spacecraft and included an optical module (a 4 in telescope and two gimbals), a modem and control electronics. O2O will communicate with ground stations in California and New Mexico. The test device is sending data to Earth with an uplink rate of up to 260 megabits per second. CubeSat secondary payloads ====================================================================== NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) originally sought proposals in August 2019 from U.S. institutions and companies to fly CubeSat missions as secondary payloads aboard the SLS on the Artemis II mission. NASA planned to accept 6-unit () and 12-unit () CubeSats, which would be mounted on the inside of the stage adapter ring between the SLS upper stage and the Orion spacecraft, deploying after Orion separated into high Earth orbit. Although selections were initially expected by February 2020, all secondary payloads were removed from the mission plans in October 2021. In September 2024, NASA announced that it would fly five CubeSats from international partners aboard the Artemis II mission; this later was reduced to four CubeSats. The payloads, selected from nations that are signatories to the Artemis Accords, are intended to advance global scientific and technological research while broadening international access to deep space. The first CubeSat selected was Germany's 'TACHELES', which will examine the impact of space conditions on electrical components used in lunar vehicles. In May 2025, NASA announced that it had selected the 'ATENEA' satellite from Argentina's National Space Activities Commission to join the mission, with goals to study radiation shielding, map the surrounding radiation environment, gather GPS data for mission planning, and test a long-distance communication system. The third and fourth satellites are 'K-RadCube' from the Korea AeroSpace Administration, which will study a dosimeter material made to mimic human tissue to measure the effects of space radiation, and 'SHAMS' (or 'SHMS', also referred to as 'Space Weather CubeSat-1') which means "Sun" in Arabic, from the Saudi Space Agency to measure aspects of space weather in high Earth orbit. The fifth CubeSat bay is occupied by an avionics unit. Public outreach ====================================================================== To raise public awareness, NASA provided a website for members of the public to obtain a digital souvenir boarding pass for the mission. Before launch, people could enter their names online which would be stored on an SD card inside the Orion spacecraft when it flies around the Moon. The website produced a "boarding pass" image for download bearing the name or text entered by the website visitor. On March 7, 2025, NASA announced the Artemis II zero-gravity indicator (ZGI) design challenge to create a mascot for the mission. More than 2,600 submissions from over 50 countries were received, with prizes totaling awarded to the winner and 24 finalists. At a pre-launch ceremony at Kennedy Space Center on March 27, 2026, Christina Koch announced "Rise", designed by 8-year-old Lucas Ye of Mountain View, California, as the winner. Inspired by the Apollo 8 'Earthrise' photograph, the mascot depicts the Moon wearing Earth as a baseball cap and was fabricated by NASA for flight and tethered inside the crew cabin. On March 4, 2026, NASA published the astronauts' menu for Artemis II. During launch and landing, the crew will consume only ready-to-eat foods, while in orbit they can rehydrate freeze-dried meals using Orion's water dispenser and can heat items with a briefcase-style food warmer. The four-person crew selected the menu following preflight taste tests, balancing nutritional requirements with storage constraints. Selected items include 58 tortillas, vegetable quiche, barbecued brisket, and spicy green beans; the menu also incorporates five Canadian products in recognition of the mission's Canadian crew member. Additional provisions include 43 servings of coffee, five varieties of hot sauce, and condiments such as maple syrup, peanut butter, mustard, jam, honey, and Nutella. Similar missions ====================================================================== NASA has described Artemis II's mission objectives as comparable to those of both Apollo 7 and Apollo 8, combining tests of the spacecraft in both Earth and lunar orbit into a single mission. However, unlike Apollo 8, Artemis II did not enter lunar orbit due to performance limitations with the ESM, which cannot independently depart from low lunar orbit. Instead, Artemis II flew around the Moon on a free-return trajectory, like Apollo 13 in 1970. Also, while Apollo 13 came within of the lunar surface, Artemis II made its closest approach at approximately , a little over two lunar diameters. The Artemis II mission patch has been interpreted as drawing inspiration from the Apollo 8 patch, which featured a vertically oriented infinity symbol alluding to the number 8 and representing the spacecraft's lunar orbit. Similarly, the Artemis II design incorporates a stylized trajectory resembling a half-period curve that subtly evokes the number "2" and corresponds to the first leg of the mission from Earth to the Moon. The depiction of Earth from beyond the Moon's far side, using a perspective similar to that of 'Earthrise' photographed by William Anders during Apollo 8, is descriptive of the mission's distance from Earth. Together, these shared design elements show the parallels between the two missions and support Artemis II's role as the first crewed lunar mission since the Apollo program. See also ====================================================================== * List of Artemis missions * List of missions to the Moon * Carroll (crater) * Integrity (crater) External links ====================================================================== * [https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-ii Artemis II], at NASA * [https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Orion/Artemis_II Artemis II], at ESA * [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-first-flight-with-crew-important-step-on-long-term-return-to-the-moon-missions-to Mission Overview], at NASA * [https://go.nasa.gov/artemisnames Artemis II "Send Your Name to Space"], at NASA * [https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis-ii/arow/ Artemis Real-time Orbit Website] (AROW), at NASA * [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Artemis-II Artemis-II] at the 'Encyclopæedia Britannica' * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs Artemis II official YouTube Stream] * [https://www.c-span.org/liveEvent/?space-program Artemis coverage on C-SPAN] License ========= All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_II .