Artemis II Launches: First Crewed Flight to the Moon in 53 Years Begins

NASA's Artemis II mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, at 18:35 local time — 0:35 Thursday morning in Poland — sending four astronauts toward the Moon for the first time in 53 years. The SLS rocket carried the Orion spacecraft, named "Integrity" by the crew, into space without major incident, despite an approximately ten-minute delay from the originally scheduled liftoff time. About eight minutes after launch, the rocket reached outer space and the first-stage engines shut down, followed by stage separation. Solar panels were successfully deployed, providing the crew with electrical power, and engineers began verifying onboard systems. The mission is scheduled to last ten days and involves a lunar flyby rather than a surface landing.

Four astronauts make history with record-breaking firsts The four-person crew aboard Orion represents several historical milestones in human spaceflight. Reid Wiseman serves as commander, Victor Glover as pilot, and Christina Koch as mission specialist — all NASA astronauts — alongside Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, who serves as the fourth mission specialist. Koch is the first woman, Glover the first person of color, and Hansen the first Canadian to travel to lunar orbit. The last time any human reached the vicinity of the Moon was during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, making this the first crewed lunar flight in over half a century. The mission's primary objective is to test Orion's life support, communication, and control systems with humans aboard — data that will be essential for future missions aimed at landing astronauts on the lunar surface and eventually establishing a permanent base. According to the mission plan, the most critical moment will come on the sixth day of flight, when Orion makes its closest approach to the Moon.

The Apollo 17 mission in 1972 was the last time humans traveled to the Moon, with astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt walking on the lunar surface. All subsequent lunar missions were unmanned. In November 2022, NASA completed the Artemis I mission, which sent the Orion spacecraft on an uncrewed test flight into lunar orbit and returned it safely to Earth. Artemis II builds directly on that uncrewed test, now placing a human crew inside the same vehicle to verify its systems under real deep-space conditions. According to current NASA plans, a crewed lunar landing is targeted for 2028 at the earliest.

Communication glitch detected fifty minutes after liftoff The launch was not entirely without incident. Approximately 50 minutes after liftoff, a temporary and partial loss of contact with the spacecraft occurred, during which the crew could hear transmissions from mission control but could not respond. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman disclosed the issue, noting that the spacecraft's systems appeared to be functioning correctly and that the problem was believed to involve ground systems rather than the Orion capsule itself. „Artemis II is the beginning of something bigger than any single mission. It represents our return to the Moon, not just to visit, but to ultimately stay in our Lunar Base, and lays the foundations for the next giant leaps in the future” — Jared Isaacman via TVN24 Earlier in the countdown, NASA had also recorded anomalous battery temperature readings in one of the launch abort systems, which the agency attributed to a faulty sensor reading, and a separate technical issue with the flight termination system was resolved without interrupting the countdown. NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya emphasized the mission's role as a test platform. „Artemis II is a test flight and the tests have just begun. The team that built this vehicle and prepared it for flight gave our crew the machine they need to prove what it can do” — Amit Kshatriya via rmf24.pl

Day-by-day plan leads to Moon flyby on April 6 Following launch, Orion entered a high Earth orbit where the crew spent approximately 23 hours checking onboard systems, including the drinking water dispenser, carbon dioxide removal system, and toilet facilities. The ICPS engine fired approximately 49 minutes after launch to raise Orion into an elliptical orbit reaching over 70,000 kilometers from Earth, after which pilot Victor Glover performed a series of manual control tests near the rocket's upper stage. The ICPS also released four CubeSats from Argentina, Germany, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia to conduct independent scientific experiments. After completing checks in high Earth orbit, the crew will perform the trans-lunar injection maneuver to push Orion toward the Moon, with the closest lunar approach planned for April 6. The capsule is scheduled to return and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at the end of the ten-day mission. The entire flight is being broadcast live on NASA's streaming platform NASA+ and on YouTube, allowing the public to follow the expedition in real time.

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