NASA is on track to launch its Artemis II mission, sending four astronauts on a trip around the moon as early as April 1, the agency announced Thursday.
The Artemis II mission will be the first crewed flight of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, marking the first time humans have journeyed to the moon in over 50 years. The ten-day mission will see the crew – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen – circle the moon, venturing further from Earth than any previous human explorers.
According to Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, teams are preparing to roll the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft back to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 19. “Everything is going pretty well,” Glaze said in a news briefing.
The planned April 1 liftoff, scheduled for 6:24 p.m. ET, is contingent on the completion of ongoing checkouts of the rocket while it’s in the hangar, as well as subsequent work at the launch pad. This decision to move forward with a launch attempt in less than three weeks followed a two-day flight readiness review, where agency officials formally certified the rocket and spacecraft for flight.
NASA is also expanding its Artemis program with an additional mission planned for 2027, and aims to conduct at least one lunar surface landing each year following that. The Artemis III mission, now slated for 2027, will focus on testing systems and operational capabilities in low Earth orbit in preparation for the Artemis IV landing in 2028. As NASA detailed, this fresh mission will include a rendezvous and docking with commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin, as well as in-space tests of the docked vehicles and new Extravehicular Activity (xEVA) suits.
This accelerated cadence of missions reflects a broader effort to establish a sustained presence on the Moon, representing a significant step in space exploration and potentially opening new avenues for scientific discovery and resource utilization. The agency will share specific objectives for the updated Artemis III mission in the near future.
The recent Artemis II news follows the successful uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, which demonstrated the capabilities of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft. More information about the Artemis II mission, including crew profiles and spacecraft details, is available on NASA’s website.
