It was December 13, 1972, when Gene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, climbed back aboard the Lunar Module, becoming the last man to have walked on the Moon. Today, 54 years later, three Americans and one Canadian have departed aboard an Orion capsule, named Integrity, toward our natural satellite. Although the astronauts of Artemis II will not land on the lunar surface, their journey is set to write history.
Liftoff.
— NASA (@NASA) April 1, 2026
The Artemis II mission launched from @NASAKennedy at 6:35pm ET (2235 UTC), propelling four astronauts on a journey around the Moon.
Artemis II will pave the way for future Moon landings, as well as the next giant leap — astronauts on Mars. pic.twitter.com/ENQA4RTqAc
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Artemis II launch
On April 1st, at 22.35 UTC, the SLS’s four RS-25 engines and two solid boosters ignited, pushing the rocket away from the launch pad. Artemis II began its rapid ascent over the Kennedy Space Center.
Two minutes after liftoff, the side boosters detached, followed one minute later by the launch abort system (LAS). Nearly eight minutes into the flight, the ICPS separated from the core stage, and Orion’s solar arrays were successfully deployed. 50 minutes after liftoff, the ICPS’s RL10 engine performed the Perigee Raise Burn to enter stable low-earth orbit. One hour later, the engine fired again for the Apogee Raise Burn to insert the spacecraft into a high Earth elliptical orbit.
After separation from the upper stage, the crew conducted a 70-minute ICPS/Orion Prox Ops demonstration. The test evaluated Orion’s ability to approach a spacecraft for docking. All maneuvers were conducted manually by the crew pilots, which guided Integrity through a series of controlled approach and retreat maneuvers using the detached ICPS as a reference target.
At the conclusion of the demonstration, Orion executed an automated departure burn to safely back away from the ICPS.
The mission is carrying:
- Reid Wiseman is the Commander of the Artemis II mission. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009, Wiseman previously flew to the ISS aboard Expedition 41.
- Victor Glover is the pilot of the mission. He previously flew as a pilot on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 in 2020, the first operational mission of the Crew Dragon to the ISS.
- Christina Hammock Koch is serving as a mission specialist aboard Artemis II. In 2019, she set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with a total of 328 days in space and participated in the first all-female spacewalks.
- Jeremy Hansen is the first Canadian to ever fly on a mission to the Moon.
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What to expect in the next days
On the second day of the mission, the main engine on Orion’s service module, developed by ESA, will perform a 30-minute translunar injection burn that will insert the capsule in its path to the Moon.
For this mission, the spacecraft will fly on a free-return trajectory, allowing a safe return to Earth even in the event of propulsion system problems.
Thus begins a four-day journey to the Moon. During this time, the crew will certainly not be idle: the four astronauts will follow a packed daily schedule, including physical exercise to maintain fitness in microgravity, scientific and medical experiments, live communications and media events with Earth, and—above all—intensive preparation for the operations and observations they will carry out during the brief flyby over the far side of the Moon.
On the fifth day comes the main event: the lunar flyby. During this phase, the capsule will approach within about 7,000 kilometers of the Moon’s surface. The crew will have three hours to take many photographs and observe specific geological formations. At that moment, Artemis II will become the most distant human mission from our planet in history. As the spacecraft passes behind the far side of the Moon, there will be a period of loss of communications with Earth.
The following day, the capsule will leave lunar space. The astronauts will spend much of the day transmitting to Earth the data collected during the flyby, including Orion’s performance and information on their health. During this day, a historic call with the astronauts aboard the ISS is also expected. Over the next two days, the crew will prepare for the return and perform trajectory correction maneuvers.
On the tenth day, the astronauts will don their spacesuits and secure themselves in their seats for the final maneuvers preceding atmospheric reentry, including the separation of the service module. Orion will enter Earth’s atmosphere at a staggering speed of 40,000 km/h, and the splashdown will take place in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Francisco, where the crew will be recovered by the US Navy.
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