Liftoff! NASA Launches Astronauts on Historic Artemis Moon Mission
Encouraged by American ingenuity, astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission are airborne, preparing for the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, sending four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft for a planned test flight around the Moon and back.
“Today’s launch marks a defining moment for our nation and for all who believe in exploration. Artemis II builds on the vision set by President Donald J. Trump, returning humanity to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years and ushering in the next chapter of lunar exploration beyond Apollo. Aboard Orion are four remarkable explorers preparing for the first crewed flight of this rocket and spacecraft, a true test mission that will carry them further and faster than any human in a generation,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Artemis II is the start of something bigger than any mission. It marks our return to the Moon, not only to visit, but to eventually stay on our Moon base, and lays the foundation for the next giant steps to come.”
This successful launch marks the start of an approximately 10-day mission for NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen. As the first crewed mission in NASA’s Artemis program, the flight will demonstrate crewed life support systems for the first time and lay the foundation for an enduring presence on the Moon ahead of future missions to Mars.
After reaching space, Orion deployed its solar wings, allowing the spacecraft to receive energy from the Sun, while the crew and engineers on the ground immediately began transitioning the spacecraft from launch to flight operations to begin checking key systems.
“Artemis II is a test flight, and the test has just begun. The team that built this vehicle, repaired it and prepared it for flight has given our crew the machine they need to prove what it can do,” said Amit Kshatriya, NASA associate administrator. “Over the next 10 days, Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy will put Orion through its paces so that the crews behind them can confidently travel to the surface of the Moon. We are one mission in a long campaign, and the work ahead of us is greater than the one before us.”
About 49 minutes into the test flight, the SLS rocket’s upper stage fired to place Orion in an elliptical orbit around Earth. A second planned burn of the scene will propel Orion, which the crew has named “Integrity,” into a high Earth orbit extending about 46,000 miles beyond Earth. After burning, Orion will separate from the scene and fly freely on its own.
In a few hours, a ring on the rocket’s upper stage, which will be a safe distance from the spacecraft, will deploy four CubeSats — small satellites from Argentina’s Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales of Argentina, the German Aerospace Center, the Korea Aerospace Administration and the Saudi Space Agency — to conduct scientific surveys and technology demonstrations.
The spacecraft will remain in high Earth orbit for approximately a day, where the crew will perform a manual pilot demonstration to test Orion’s manipulation capabilities. The astronauts, along with teams from the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, will continue to check the spacecraft systems.
If all systems remain healthy, mission controllers will instruct Orion’s European Construction Service Module to perform the translunar injection burn on Thursday, April 2. It’s a roughly six-minute shot to send the spacecraft on a trajectory that will simultaneously carry the crew around the Moon, while harnessing lunar gravity to return them to Earth.
During a planned several-hour lunar flyby on Monday, April 6, astronauts will take photos and provide observations of the Moon’s surface as the first to lay eyes on certain areas of the far side. Although the far side of the Moon is only partially illuminated during the flyby, conditions are expected to create shadows that extend across the surface, enhancing relief and revealing depth, ridges, slopes and crater rims that are often difficult to detect under full illumination. Crew observations and other scientific investigations of human health during the mission, such as AVATAR, will inform science on future missions to the Moon.
After a successful lunar flyby, the astronauts will return to Earth and land in the Pacific Ocean.
As part of a golden age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly challenging missions to further explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefit, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
Follow the latest progress of the mission, including more images from the test flight, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/
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Bethany Stevens / Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
bethany.c.stevens@nasa.gov / rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov
