Orion

NASA launched the Artemis II mission on April 1, 2026 at 6:35 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, sending commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a ~10-day free-return trajectory around the Moon. The SLS core stage and Orion spacecraft performed nominally, with solar array deployment confirmed shortly after separation. On April 2, the crew completed a 5-minute, 55-second translunar injection burn that set Orion on course to reach a maximum distance of approximately 252,021 miles from Earth — surpassing the Apollo 13 record. The mission is a crewed test flight, not a lunar landing, and is intended to validate Orion life support, navigation, and deep-space systems ahead of Artemis IV.

NASA formally locks in an April 1–7 2026 launch window for Artemis II, the first crewed flight of the Artemis program, to perform a lunar flyby using the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft.

NASA's Space Launch System launched for the first time on November 16, 2022, carrying an uncrewed Orion capsule on a 26-day mission to distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. Orion splashed down December 11 in the Pacific. Heat shield showed unexpected but non-critical ablation patterns during reentry — triggering months of analysis before Artemis II crew clearance.