Artemis II and Beyond

NASA is going back to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers: the Artemis Generation. While maintaining American leadership in exploration, we’re building a global alliance and exploring deep space for the benefit of all. At NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, for the upcoming Artemis II mission and beyond, we are actively shaping mission architecture, characterizing launch vehicle and spacecraft  atmospheric ascent and reentry aerodynamics, building safety systems for astronauts, crafting electronics for instrumentation, programming robotics for in-space assembly, and developing business approaches for space commerce. 

Orion

NASA Langley has played a major role in the development of the Orion spacecraft that will carry Artemis II astronauts around the Moon and back. The center conducted a series of water drop tests with an 18,000-pound mockup of Orion – which included key contributions from Langley’s fabrication shop – at its unique Hydro Impact Basin facility. The testing, which began in July 2011, simulated different water landing scenarios and took into account different velocities, parachute deployments, entry angles, sea states and wind conditions. Onboard were instrumented crash test dummies that helped engineers understand what the spacecraft and astronauts may experience when landing in the Pacific Ocean after reentry. Langley also played an important role in development of the heat shield — validating the structural design, analysis, manufacturing process, material testing, proof testing and installation of the hardware. Langley performed complex thermal-mechanical analyses and tests of the heat shield as well. 

Space Launch System

The Space Launch System (SLS) is the most capable human-rated deep space rocket ever built. NASA Langley has made scores of contributions to the SLS Block 1 rocket being used for Artemis II. In the center’s wind tunnels — subsonic, transonic and supersonic — researchers have measured everything from the influence of ground winds on the rocket structure at the launch pad to the forces and loads the air exerts on the launch vehicle during every phase of the SLS’s ascent through the atmosphere. In addition, some of SLS’s most challenging computational simulations have been run by experts at Langley since the beginning of the program. 

Launch Abort System

NASA is always concerned with the safety of its astronauts. Sitting high atop the SLS stack for the Artemis II mission is the Launch Abort System (LAS) that is designed to safely propel the Orion crew module away from the SLS in the event of an emergency. In mere milliseconds the LAS can activate to thrust the almost 24,000-pound spacecraft away from the rocket at a much higher velocity than the rocket itself can move. NASA Langley managed the development of the LAS, and delivered more than 90 tons of custom hardware, including the primary structure of the Orion crew module, for the successful LAS flight test, Ascent Abort 2. A version of LAS also successfully jettisoned from the uncrewed Artemis I mission. 

Flight Data Analysis

The Scientifically Calibrated In-Flight Imagery (SCIFLI) team provides high resolution spectral images that help investigators understand the behavior of vehicles under extreme conditions. Researchers use ground-based, air-based, and sea-based imaging platforms to get high quality images of launches, reentries, flight tests, and parachute tests. For Artemis II, they’ll use six ground-based platforms to image launch and four aircraft for reentry. SCIFLI’s work supports human spaceflight, improves aerothermodynamic models, and ultimately reduces risk. 

Robotic In-space Assembly

We are ensuring astronauts can live and work safely on the Moon and Mars through autonomous robotic in-space assembly that will allow NASA to construct critical surface infrastructure before humans arrive, including radiation shelters, power systems, launch and landing facilities, dust plume barriers, and more. Similarly, these capabilities will enable the autonomous assembly of orbital research stations, interplanetary vehicles, and large-diameter space telescopes, helping us to see and travel farther into the galaxy than ever before.

Space Suits

Technicians and engineers at Langley are fabricating portable life support system backplates for Axiom Space’s Extravehicular Activity Services space suits, which will support Artemis astronauts on future space missions. The backplates are machined titanium with embedded cooling channels. They serve as a “motherboard” of sorts — all the equipment required to keep an astronaut alive during a moonwalk on the lunar surface will be mounted to the plate. 

Mission Architecture

As NASA heads to the Moon and beyond, complex mission planning is essential. Langley researchers and engineers develop and analyze systems and concepts to address the many challenges of the Artemis program future missions. This foundational work supports the agency’s broader Moon to Mars strategy and helps meet NASA’s goals and objectives. 

Human Landing Systems

NASA Langley is providing U.S. companies SpaceX and Blue Origin with expert insight into their Human Landing Systems. The center is collaborating with these companies to share exceptional knowledge, skillsets and facilities in support of a number of subject areas, including aerodynamics; guidance, navigation and control; structural analysis and dynamics; and systems engineering and integration. In addition, the study of plume-surface interactions has recently been front and center. As trips to the Moon increase and the number of payloads touching down in proximity to one another grows, scientists and engineers need to accurately predict the effects of landings. To that end, NASA Langley researchers developed the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) instrument, which captures imagery of the interaction between a lunar lander’s engine plumes and the Moon’s dust, soil and rocks from onset through to touchdown and engine shutoff. In 2025, SCALPSS captured first-of-its-kind imagery as Firefly’s Blue Ghost landed on the Moon. Here on Earth, a cross-Agency team led by Langley is conducting a series of ground-based plume-surface interaction tests under vacuum to improve understanding of these landing environments and reduce risks for the large, powerful landers that will return humans to the surface of the Moon.