From left, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander; Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot; Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II mission specialist, stop for a group photograph as they visit NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, Monday, March 30, 2026, at Launch Complex 39B of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Photo credit: NASA
The NASA Artemis II mission is scheduled for liftoff at 6:24 p.m. EDT (3:54 a.m.) on Thursday (April 2, 2026). If the lift-off is successful, the giant rocket will send humans to near the moon for the first time in more than half a century. In so doing, it will make an important milestone for the U.S. space programme.Read: Artemis II, the international space race, and what is at stake for the U.S.The Artemis II mission uses the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the crew capsule is called Orion. The SLS will propel Orion into a free-return trajectory around the far side of the moon, reaching around 7,500 km from the moon’s surface before the earth’s gravity pulls them back to splash down in the Pacific Ocean in a little over a week.Also Read | ‘I’m really proud’: Ed Dwight — first Black astronaut candidate reflects on historic Moon missionThe mission does not plan to land on the moon. Instead, NASA is flying it to prove that the whole system — from the ground teams to the rocket and its crew — works as designed and the processes to land humans on the moon are ready.
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