Artemis II

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

Artemis II carried humans beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972 — closing a gap of more than fifty-four years in which no one had ventured past the near-Earth realm. Where the uncrewed Artemis I had tested the hardware, Artemis II put a crew aboard Orion and sent them around the Moon. Commander Reid Wiseman led the four. The crew included Christina Koch, holder of the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman (328 days), and Victor Glover, the first African-American astronaut assigned to a lunar mission. Jeremy Hansen became the first Canadian to travel to the Moon. They flew aboard the Orion spacecraft they named Integrity, which launched on NASA's Space Launch System from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center on the evening of 1 April 2026. After reaching a high Earth orbit and checking out the spacecraft's systems, the upper stage fired a trans-lunar injection burn that set Integrity on course for the Moon. Artemis II flew a free-return trajectory — a path that loops once behind the Moon and uses lunar gravity to swing the craft naturally back toward Earth, requiring no capture burn and giving the safest possible profile for a first crewed flight. Over the following days Orion coasted outward, the crew exercising its life-support, navigation and communications along the way. Around the fifth and sixth days they passed behind the Moon's far side — the hemisphere never visible from Earth — and watched their home planet slip behind the lunar horizon and rise again, photographing the 'Earthset' through Orion's windows from farther away than any living person had been. That far-side imagery became some of the mission's defining pictures. Lunar gravity then slung Integrity back toward home. After a return coast of several days the spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere at nearly forty thousand kilometres per hour and, on 10 April 2026, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, where a US Navy ship recovered the crew after roughly ten days in space. Artemis II carried no lander and made no landing, but its purpose was proof — that Orion could keep a crew alive on the voyage to the Moon and back. It returned humans to deep space after two generations away, and set the stage for the landing to come on Artemis III.

1. 2026Launch from LC-39BLaunch

   The first crew to leave low Earth orbit since 1972 lifts off on SLS: Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen.

2. 2026Trans-lunar injectionMilestone

   The upper stage fires Orion 'Integrity' out of Earth orbit and onto a free-return path to the Moon.

3. 2026Lunar far-side flybyMilestone

   The crew loops behind the Moon's far side, watching Earth rise and set through Orion's windows.

4. 2026Homeward on a free returnMilestone

   Lunar gravity slingshots Integrity back toward Earth without another major burn.

5. 2026Pacific splashdownMission end

   Integrity re-enters and splashes down off San Diego after ~10 days; the crew is recovered safely.

Images

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