Artemis II is a planned mission under the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

-led

Artemis program The Artemis program is a robotic and human Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with three partner agencies: European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Age ...

, set to be the second launch of the

Space Launch System The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle developed by NASA. As of 2022, SLS has the highest payload capacity of any rocket in operational service, as well as the greatest liftoff thrust of any r ...

(SLS) rocket and the first crewed flight of the

Orion spacecraft Orion (officially Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or Orion MPCV) is a partially reusable crewed spacecraft used in NASA's Artemis program. The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module (CM) space capsule designed by Lockheed Martin and the Europ ...

. Scheduled to launch no earlier than April 2026, the mission will carry four astronauts on a flyby of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...

before returning to Earth. This will mark the first time a crew has traveled to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. Initially designated as Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2), the mission was originally planned to retrieve samples from a captured asteroid as part of the now-canceled

Asteroid Redirect Mission The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), also known as the Asteroid Retrieval and Utilization (ARU) mission and the Asteroid Initiative, was a space mission proposed by NASA in 2013; the mission was later cancelled. The Asteroid Retrieval Roboti ...

. It was later renamed following the establishment of the Artemis program.

History

Mission planning and launcher selection (2017–2021)

In 2017, Exploration Mission-2 was a projected single-launch mission of a

(SLS) Block 1B rocket with an

Exploration Upper Stage The Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) is being developed as a large second stage for Block 1B and Block 2 of the Space Launch System (SLS), succeeding Block 1's Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. It will be powered by four RL10C-3 engines burnin ...

, lunar Block 1 Orion spacecraft, and a payload insertion of . The plan was to rendezvous with an asteroid previously placed in lunar orbit by the robotic

and have astronauts perform space-walks and gather samples. After the cancellation in April 2017 of the Asteroid Redirect Mission, an 8-day mission was proposed with a crew of four astronauts, sent on a free-return trajectory around the Moon. Another proposal suggested in 2017 was to take four astronauts aboard Orion on an 8-to-21–day trip around the Moon to deliver the first element of the

Deep Space Gateway The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is the first planned extraterrestrial space station in lunar orbit intended to serve as a solar-powered communication hub, science laboratory, and short-term habitation module for government-agency astr ...

. In March 2018, it was decided to launch the first

Gateway Gateway often refers to: *A gate or portal Gateway or The Gateway may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * ''Gateway'' (film), a 1938 drama * ''The Gateway'' (2015 film), a horror film * ''The Gateway'' (2017 film), a science-ficti ...

module on a commercial launch vehicle because of delays in building the

Mobile Launcher In the military, vehicles such as trucks or tractor units can be used to transport or launch missiles (rockets with warheads), essentially a form of rocket artillery. History The missile vehicle may be a self-propelled unit or the missile hold ...

needed to hold the more powerful Exploration Upper Stage. The launcher was selected to be the SpaceX

Falcon Heavy Falcon Heavy is a partially reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle that is produced by SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer. The rocket consists of two strap-on boosters made from Falcon 9 first stages, a center core also made from a Falc ...

. NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) sought proposals in 2019 from U.S. institutions and U.S. companies to fly their

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSat ...

missions as

secondary payload Secondary payload, also known as rideshare payload, is a smaller-sized payload transported to orbit on a launch vehicle that is mostly paid for—and with the date and time of launch and the orbital trajectory determined—by the entity that co ...

s aboard the SLS on the Artemis II mission. NASA would accept proposals for both 6-unit () and 12-unit () CubeSats. As with the

Artemis I Artemis 1, officially Artemis I and formerly Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis 1 marked the return of the agency to lunar exploration origina ...

mission, the CubeSats flying on Artemis II were to be mounted on the inside of the stage adapter ring between the SLS upper stage and the Orion spacecraft, and will be deployed after Orion separates. Selections were initially planned to be made by February 2020, but in October 2021, NASA dropped all secondary payloads from the mission.

Hardware development, testing and integration (2021–present)

On 11 February 2023, NASA flipped the engine section for the Artemis II core to horizontal, the final major milestone before mating the section to the rest of the vehicle. On 20 March, the engine section was mated with the Artemis II core stage in Building 103 at the

Michoud Assembly Facility The Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) is an manufacturing complex owned by NASA in New Orleans East, a district within New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States. Organizationally it is part of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, and is current ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

In May, the delivery date was moved to late fall 2023. The

RS-25 The Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25, also known as the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine that was used on NASA's Space Shuttle and is currently used on the Space Launch System (SLS). Designed and manufactur ...

engines with serial numbers E2047, E2059, E2062, and E2063 were installed on the core stage in New Orleans by 25 September 2023. Finally in June 2024, NASA announced the planned delivery of the fully outfitted core stage to KSC in July 2024, which was successfully carried out from the 16th to the 25th. The adapters needed for integration of the full vehicle also reached substantial completion in June 2024, and arrived at Kennedy Space Center in September 2024. The crew was announced on 3 April 2023, as stated by NASA Administrator

Bill Nelson Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Nelson previously served as a United States Senator from Flo ...

, in his "State of NASA" speech reacting to President Joe Biden's FY2024 budget proposal. The announcement occurred at a NASA facility at

Ellington Field Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base is a joint installation shared by various active component and reserve component military units, as well as aircraft flight operations of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the aegis ...

outside

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

. They appeared later that day at nearby

NRG Stadium NRG Stadium, formerly Reliant Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. Construction was completed in 2002, at a cost of $352 million and has a seating capacity of 72,220. It was the first NFL facility to have a retrac ...

for the 2023 March Madness championship game. NASA had originally planned to begin rocket stacking operations in September 2024. However, the process was delayed by over two months as the agency investigated issues with Orion's life support system and greater than expected damage to Orion's

heat shield In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

observed after the

reentry. Rocket stacking finally began on 20 November 2024.

Launch date

During preliminary reviews in 2011, the launch date was placed somewhere between 2019 and 2021, but afterwards the launch date was delayed to 2023. In January 2024, the mission was expected to launch no earlier than September 2025. However, in October 2024, the

NASA Office of Inspector General The NASA Office of Inspector General (NASA OIG or OIG) is the inspector general office in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the space agency of the United States. The OIG's stated mission is to "prevent and detect crime, fraud, wa ...

determined that the

Exploration Ground Systems NASA's Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) Program is one of three programs based at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. EGS was established to develop and operate the systems and facilities necessary to process and launch rockets and spacecraft d ...

team had already used up their time reserved for resolving any unforeseen issues, leading the office to determine that the September 2025 launch date would likely be delayed. In December 2024, outgoing Administrator Nelson announced that the launch was delayed due to the months of engineering investigations into issues with the life support system and heat shield, but should occur no later than April 2026. In March 2025, AmericaSpace reported that NASA had moved up the launch of the mission by two months to February 2026, which was later confirmed by NASA in a follow-up statement to that website.

Crew

Artemis II will be crewed by four astronauts: Commander

Reid Wiseman Gregory Reid Wiseman (born November 11, 1975) is an American astronaut, engineer, and naval aviator. He served as Chief of the Astronaut Office until November 14, 2022. Wiseman was selected in June 2009 as a member of the NASA Astronaut Group 2 ...

, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist

Christina Koch Christina Hammock Koch ( ; born January 29, 1979) is an American engineer and NASA astronaut of the class of 2013. She received Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical engineering and physics and a Master of Science in electrical engineering ...

, all from NASA, along with Mission Specialist

Jeremy Hansen Jeremy Roger Hansen (born January 27, 1976) is a current CSA astronaut. He was selected to join the CSA in the 2009 CSA selection along with David Saint-Jacques. Prior to his selection as one of Canada's astronauts, Hansen was a Royal Canadia ...

from the

Canadian Space Agency The Canadian Space Agency (CSA; french: Agence spatiale canadienne, ASC) is the national space agency of Canada, established in 1990 by the ''Canadian Space Agency Act''. The president is Lisa Campbell, who took the position on September 3, 20 ...

. * * * * On 22 November 2023, Jenni Gibbons was named as Hansen's backup, and on 3 July 2024,

Andre Douglas Andre Douglas is an American systems engineer and NASA astronaut candidate. Early life and education Douglas is a Virginia native. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the United States Coast Guard Academy, a master’s ...

was named backup for the three NASA astronauts. Glover will become the first person of color, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American to travel to the Moon. Hansen and Gibbons, both from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, were selected by the Canadian Space Agency as part of a 2020 treaty between the United States and Canada that facilitated their participation in the Artemis program.

Mission

The Artemis II mission plan is to send four astronauts in the first crewed

into a lunar flyby using the Block 1 variant of the

. The mission profile is a multi-

trans-lunar injection A trans-lunar injection (TLI) is a propulsive maneuver used to set a spacecraft on a trajectory that will cause it to arrive at the Moon. History The first space probe to attempt TLI was the Soviet Union's Luna 1 on January 2, 1959 which ...

(MTLI), or multiple departure burns, and includes a free-return trajectory from the Moon. The Orion spacecraft will be sent to a

high Earth orbit A high Earth orbit is a geocentric orbit with an altitude entirely above that of a geosynchronous orbit (). The orbital periods of such orbits are greater than 24 hours, therefore satellites in such orbits have an apparent retrograde motio ...

with a period of roughly 24 hours. During this time the crew will perform various checkouts of the spacecraft's life support systems as well as an in-space rendezvous and proximity operations demonstration using the spent

Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle developed by NASA. As of 2022, SLS has the highest payload capacity of any rocket in operational service, as well as the greatest liftoff thrust of any ...

(ICPS) as a target. When Orion reaches perigee once again, it will fire its main engine to complete the TLI maneuver, which will send it to a lunar free-return trajectory, before returning to Earth.

Optical communications

Artemis II will test and demonstrate optical communications to and from Earth using the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O). The O2O hardware will be integrated into the Orion spacecraft and includes an optical module (a telescope and two gimbals), modem and control electronics. O2O will communicate with ground stations in California and New Mexico. The test device will send data to Earth with a downlink rate of up to 260

megabit The megabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information. The prefix mega (symbol M) is defined in the International System of Units (SI) as a multiplier of 106 (1 million), and therefore :1 megabit = = = 1000 kilobits. The megabit ...

s per second.

Mission overview

Artemis II's trajectory can be divided into several key phases:

Launch

* Vehicle: Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1 * Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center, Launch Complex 39B * Duration: Approximately 8 minutes to reach initial orbit * Trajectory: The SLS will launch Orion into a low Earth orbit (LEO) for a very short period of time, then fire again to place Orion in a highly-eccentric orbit with a period of about 24 hours.

Earth orbit and systems checkout

* Orbit: Highly-eccentric orbit with an apogee above that of typical communications satellites * Duration: About 24 hours * Activities: The crew will perform checks on the Orion spacecraft’s systems, ensuring all are functioning correctly before proceeding with the mission. They will also demonstrate proximity operations with the upper stage of their launch vehicle.

Translunar injection

* Maneuver: After the systems checkout, the Orion spacecraft will perform a TLI burn using its Service Module, propelling it out of Earth orbit towards the Moon. * Trajectory: A precise burn to place Orion on a trajectory that will take it around the Moon.

Lunar flyby

* Altitude: Closest approach approximately from the lunar surface. * Duration: Several days to travel to the Moon, fly around it, and begin the return trip. * Activities: The crew will continue to monitor and test Orion’s systems and gather data on deep space travel effects.

Return trajectory

* Maneuver: After the lunar flyby, Orion will use the Moon’s gravity to assist in its return to Earth, a maneuver known as a free-return trajectory. * Trajectory: A path that will naturally bring Orion back to Earth without the need for additional propulsion if systems fail.

Re-entry and splashdown

* Re-entry Phase: Orion will re-enter Earth's atmosphere. * Splashdown: In the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, recovery teams will retrieve the spacecraft and crew. * Duration: The entire mission is expected to last about 10 days.

Similar missions

In December 1968, the

Apollo 8 Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing, and then departed safely back to Earth. The ...

mission, crewed by astronauts

Frank Borman Frank Frederick Borman II (born March 14, 1928) is a retired United States Air Force (USAF) colonel, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, businessman, and NASA astronaut. He was the commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the ...

Jim Lovell James Arthur Lovell Jr. (; born March 25, 1928) is an American retired astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot and mechanical engineer. In 1968, as command module pilot of Apollo 8, he became, with Frank Borman and William Anders, one of th ...

, and

William Anders William Alison Anders (born 17 October 1933) is a retired United States Air Force (USAF) major general, former electrical engineer, nuclear engineer, NASA astronaut, and businessman. In December 1968, he was a member of the crew of Apollo 8, t ...

, flew their

command and service module The Apollo command and service module (CSM) was one of two principal components of the United States Apollo spacecraft, used for the Apollo program, which landed astronauts on the Moon between 1969 and 1972. The CSM functioned as a mother s ...

beyond low Earth orbit and completed ten orbits of the Moon. Similar to the planned Artemis II mission in that it was crewed and did not land, it differed by being placed into orbit.

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted af ...

(1970) was the only Apollo mission, and only crewed spaceflight to date, that flew past the Moon by a

free-return trajectory In orbital mechanics, a free-return trajectory is a trajectory of a spacecraft traveling away from a primary body (for example, the Earth) where gravity due to a secondary body (for example, the Moon) causes the spacecraft to return to the primar ...

References

External links

Artemis II
at NASA
Mission Overview
at NASA {{Future spaceflights Missions to the Moon Artemis program Crewed missions to the Moon Orion (spacecraft) Space Launch System Crewed spacecraft 2026 in spaceflight 2026 in the United States Future human spaceflights