JOHNSON SPACE CENTER — NASA officials on Tuesday morning said the Artemis II mission that will see four astronauts orbit the moon might launch as early as February 2026, as long as all systems and the lunar body align.
What You Need To Know
- The launch date all depends on a variety of things, such as the position the moon is from Earth, technical readiness and even Earth and space weather
- NASA officials explain to Spectrum News how an issue that postponed the mission has been resolved
At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, officials of the Artemis II mission gave a step-by-step briefing of what to expect when four humans journey back to the moon.
It will send NASA’s Cmdr. Gregory Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut mission specialist Jeremy Hansen to the moon, the first time humans visited the rocky satellite since 1972.
Lakiesha Hawkins, acting deputy associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said Artemis II will be a 10-day test flight that may be as early as Feb. 5, 2026, or further out, like April 2026.
Hawkins said the launch date all depends on a variety of things, such as the position the moon is from Earth, technical readiness and even Earth and space weather.
NASA’s Orion program manager Howard Hu said that the Orion will be the first space capsule in 50 years that will carry humans back to the moon to orbit it.
Artemis Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said the Orion capsule and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket have been stacked and are ready to go, with most of the work behind the team of hundreds of engineers and technicians.
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She broke down the series of tests that will take place before launch day, from the four astronauts suiting up and going into Orion, where a series of tests and checklists will be conducted.
The SLS rocket will also be fueled during these systems checks, said Blackwell-Thompson.
Both Judd Frieling, lead Artemis II ascent flight director, and Jeff Radigan, lead Artemis II flight director, explained what to expect from the moment the massive 322-foot Block 1 configuration of the SLS rocket takes off from the Kennedy Space Center at Launch Complex 39B to stage separation, to the journey to the moon, orbiting Earth’s lunar sister and coming back home.
Radigan explained just how close the Artemis II crew will be to the moon.
“They are going at least 5,000 nautical miles past the moon, which is much higher than previous missions have gone, so the moon will look a little bit smaller. … so, it is going to look a little bit smaller since they are not going as low, but they are going further past the moon than anyone has gone before,” he said.
The crew will splash down in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego.
Artemis II was originally set to launch November 2024 and then in September 2025, but there was a heatshield issue on Orion during the Artemis I mission that pushed things back.
Spectrum News asked what type of impact the issue had on the Artemis II mission.
Lead Artemis II Entry Flight Director Rick Henfling recapped what happened on Artemis I: The Orion capsule did a skip entry twice when returning to Earth, where it dipped into the atmosphere to bleed off some of the energy. But by doing that, the char from the heat shield fell off.
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Teams, including an independent team, found that the gas that was created as the heatshield decomposed, which is expected to happen, generated more gas, which exceeded the rate of gas dissipation, which caused a pressure buildup in the heat shield, which caused it to break away.
“The Artemis II trajectory we are going to fly is going to be one that is not going to replicate that temperature environment, which was conducive to that gas generation rate,” he explained.
Hawkins jumped in, adding, “And so from a risk perspective, we feel very confident that we are going to be able to bring our crew back safely for Artemis II.”
Spectrum News also asked how the officials feel about being a part of a historical mission that will bring humans back to the moon.
“I know, at least, amongst the flight directors here, none of us were born during Apollo, and so, this is our opportunity to inspire a generation of kids to get involved in future space exploration. Then maybe one of those kids who was inspired by what we do on Artemis II becomes that person who sets the first footprints on the surface of Mars. So, it is an honor to be part of the flight director team, leading a flight control team to execute this mission,” Henfling said.
Anthony Leone
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