NASA’s Artemis II mission launched successfully on April 1, 2026, at 6:24 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39B in Florida, sending four astronauts on the first crewed lunar flyby in over 50 years since Apollo 17.
The crew includes commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. This 10-day journey covers 685,000 miles around the Moon, with an average Earth-Moon distance of 238,855 miles. Orion, designed to support four astronauts for 21 days, offers 330 cubic feet of habitable space and 62-foot solar array wings.
The SLS-Orion stack stands 322 feet tall, weighs 5.75 million pounds at liftoff, and generates 8.8 million pounds of thrust using over 730,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen in the core stage. The European Service Module provides 19,000 pounds of steering propellant and 33 engines.
Upon return, Orion reenters at 25,000 miles per hour, deploying 11 parachutes for a splashdown at 20 miles per hour or less. NASA estimates the cost per launch for the first four Artemis missions at $4.2 billion.
Artemis II marks the first crewed flight of SLS and Orion, sending the first woman, first Black astronaut, and first Canadian beyond low Earth orbit, paving the way for future lunar landings.