NASA

Official NASA launch-day coverage of Artemis II, including confirmation of SLS core stage separation, solar array deployment, and perigee raise burn, as the mission transitions to upper-stage operations.

The Artemis II crew — Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen — arrived at Kennedy Space Center on March 27, 2026, with launch window opening April 1 at 6:24 PM EDT. The crew entered standard pre-launch quarantine protocol. All four will travel farther from Earth than any humans since Apollo 17 in December 1972.

Experts including NASA and Lockheed Martin leaders discussed the March 20 second X-59 flight results, glitch response, and expanded 2026 testing roadmap post-envelope expansion.

Jessica Meir and Chris Williams spent 6.5 hours outside the station preparing the 2A power channel for new IROSA solar arrays. All objectives met; Spacewalk 95 follows soon.

Engineers completed final close-outs faster than expected. The SLS + Orion stack began its rollout to Pad 39B on March 19 targeting April 1 launch. Artemis II will send four astronauts on the first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo 17.

The March 17 daylight fireball fragmented at ~50 miles altitude over Medina County. Energy release created a shock wave felt across 10+ states. NASA’s fireball network and public reports confirmed the event; meteorite search area identified south of Valley City.

All 10 NASA CLPS payloads on Blue Ghost powered on and collected data. On March 14, the lander captured historic imagery of a total solar eclipse from the lunar surface — the first time a commercial company observed this phenomenon while actively operating on the Moon. The LuGRE instrument received GPS signals from 362,000 km, setting a new record.

NASA confirmed Intuitive Machines' IM-2 Athena lander ended operations less than 13 hours after landing at Mons Mouton. The lander settled on its side in a crater ~250 m off-target after an altimeter failure. Despite the anomaly, 250 MB of science data was returned and PRIME-1 demonstrated full hardware range of motion. Mission contract value: $62.5M.

NASA introduced the Artemis II crew: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and CSA Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen. The selection makes Glover the first person of color, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American assigned to a human lunar mission.

NASA's Artemis I mission concluded successfully with Orion splashing down in the Pacific after 26 days and 1.4 million miles traveled. The mission validated SLS and Orion as a deep space architecture, though unexpected heat shield erosion during reentry triggered an extended analysis period delaying Artemis II.