Editor’s Note: Blog updated to reflect update propellant burn quantities. NASA’s Artemis II crew is on the way to the Moon. After the mission management team polled “Go” Thursday, NASA’s Orion spacecraft fired its main engine for five minutes and 50 seconds beginning at 7:49 p.m. EDT, to successfully complete the translunar injection (TLI) burn, […]
NASA’s Artemis II mission management team polled “Go” for the translunar injection burn to send the crew in the Orion spacecraft toward the Moon and send humans around Earth’s closest celestial neighbor for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. The spacecraft will ignite its main engine on the service module for five minutes […]
A view of the Earth from NASA’s Orion spacecraft as it orbits above the planet during the Artemis II test flight. NASA astronauts Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, launched at 6:35 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, on an approximately 10-day mission around the Moon and back to Earth.
The Artemis II crew, working closely with mission control in Houston, were able to restore the Orion spacecraft’s toilet to normal operations following the proximity operations demonstration. Ahead of the apogee raise burn on April 1, the Artemis II crew reported a blinking fault light and mission control teams successfully assessed the data and worked […]
The Artemis II crew successfully completed the proximity operations demonstration, concluding one of the mission’s early objectives and providing valuable data on how the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity, performs during manual close‑range maneuvering around another spacecraft. Over the course of the approximately 70‑minute activity, the crew guided the spacecraft through a series of controlled approach […]
The apogee raise burn was successfully completed, continuing to fine tune the Orion spacecraft’s orbit around Earth. The ICPS (interim cryogenic propulsion stage) ignited its RL10 engine for a precisely timed burn that increased the highest point of the spacecraft’s orbit. Ahead of the burn, the Artemis II crew began setting their spacecraft up for […]
The perigee raise maneuver was successfully completed, refining the Orion spacecraft’s orbit around Earth. The interim cryogenic propulsion stage ignited its RL10 engine for a precisely timed burn that increased the lowest point of the spacecraft’s orbit. Shortly after the burn, the spacecraft experienced a loss of communications, when the ground was not able to […]
Live launch day updates for NASA’s Artemis II test flight will be published on this page. All times are Eastern. 6:59 p.m. The Orion spacecraft’s SAWs (solar arrays wings) have fully deployed, completing a key configuration step for the Artemis II mission. Flight controllers in Houston confirmed that all four wings unfolded as planned, locking into […]
As the Artemis II countdown moves steadily toward liftoff no earlier than 6:24 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, April 1, launch teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida continue completing a sequence of highly choreographed steps to ready the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for the crew’s journey around the Moon. The weather forecast for launch day […]
The countdown for NASA’s Artemis II test flight is underway at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with members of the launch team arriving at their consoles inside the Rocco Petrone Launch Control Center. The onsite countdown clock started ticking down at 4:44 p.m. EDT to a targeted launch time of 6:24 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1. Artemis II is the first crewed launch of NASA’s SLS […]
