NASA’s Artemis II moon mission heads to launch

Live: that of NASA Artemis II the lunar mission will be launched

By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner

from NASA Artemis II The lunar mission is set to launch Wednesday evening for a journey around the far side of the Moon that could take humans further away from Earth than ever before.

At 9:25 a.m. EDT, the Artemis II The astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen – began what will be a long day of preparation before the lunar launch. NASA engineers had already begun loading the mission’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with liquid propellant. This process will be closely monitored, as the SLS had suffered from technical problems such as fuel leaks in the past, which had delayed the launch several times. These problems also affected the mission’s predecessor, Artemis I. The agency is confident it has resolved the problem, officials said.

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At 12:23 p.m., NASA announced that it had filled the core and upper stage of the SLS rocket with liquid fuel, a major step in preparing for its launch.

NASA is currently planning a launch no earlier than 6:24 p.m. from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 212-foot-tall SLS is topped by the Orion crew capsule, a space about the size of two minivans, where the four crew members will spend the 10-day mission.

On this journey, they hope to circle the Moon and return to Earth, a journey that would take humans further into space than anyone before – more than 250,000 miles from Earth and 4,000 miles beyond the moon. They will also observe parts of the far side of the Moon that humans have only seen through satellite photographs. At the same time, they will conduct several tests of the spacecraft and other technologies that will ultimately inform NASA’s future moon base ambitions.

In March, NASA announced a new lunar mission plan that will see humans land on the Moon in 2028 – the first time since 1972 – in what would be a first foray of many, with the goal of establishing a staffed research base on the Moon within the next decade.

Editor’s Note (04/01/26): This is a developing story and will be updated.

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