NASA Set to Launch Artemis II: First Crewed Mission to the Moon in Over 50 Years

NASA is set to launch four astronauts on a 10-day flyby of the Moon on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, with the launch window opening at 18:24 EDT (22:24 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the first crewed mission to the Moon's vicinity since Apollo 17 in 1972. The crew of the Artemis II mission consists of Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch — all NASA astronauts — alongside Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen. Weather forecasters placed the odds of favorable conditions at 80 percent for the two-hour launch window, according to AP News. NASA mission managers voted unanimously in favor of proceeding with the launch on Monday, with launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson telling reporters the team was in excellent shape heading into the countdown.

„Certainly all the signs are pointing to, as we head into the count, we are in great, great shape.” — Charlie Blackwell-Thompson via Reuters

Delays from fuel leaks pushed launch to April The road to Wednesday's launch was marked by repeated technical setbacks that pushed the mission back by nearly two months. The flight was originally scheduled for February 6, then rescheduled to March 6, before hydrogen fuel leaks forced NASA to roll the rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for inspections, according to Reuters. Clogged helium lines subsequently pushed the launch further to April, AP News reported. The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft are now positioned on Launch Complex 39B — one pad away from where Apollo lunar missions departed more than five decades ago. If Wednesday's launch is scrubbed, NASA has backup windows available daily through April 6, after which the next opportunity would not arise until April 30. Senior test director Jeff Spaulding said the team understood the weight of the moment.

„Everybody's pretty excited and understands the significance of this launch.” — Jeff Spaulding via AP News

Artemis II — Road to Launch: — ; — ; —

Mission sets multiple historic firsts for human spaceflight The Artemis II mission carries several historic distinctions beyond its role as the first crewed lunar flyby in over 50 years. Christina Koch will become the first woman to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Victor Glover the first person of color to do so, and Jeremy Hansen the first non-American citizen to venture that far into space, according to the verification log. The crew will travel a total of 685,000 miles aboard the Orion spacecraft, according to The Scotsman. That distance would surpass the current record for the farthest human spaceflight — approximately 248,000 miles — set by the three-person crew of Apollo 13 in 1970, according to Reuters. The mission's objectives include testing Orion's life support systems and gathering data to support future crewed Artemis missions, with the ultimate goal of returning astronauts to the lunar surface and eventually building momentum toward human missions to Mars.

The Apollo 17 mission in December 1972 was the last time humans traveled to the Moon's vicinity. No crewed mission had ventured beyond low Earth orbit in the more than five decades since. The Artemis program was established to return humans to the Moon, with Artemis I — an uncrewed test flight — successfully entering lunar orbit in November 2022. Artemis II is the program's first crewed test flight, intended to verify the systems needed to support astronauts in deep space before a landing attempt is made in a subsequent mission.

A Florida school watches its last launch before closing The Artemis II launch carries a bittersweet dimension for one small community near the launch site. Cape View Elementary, the only elementary school in Cape Canaveral and a school that has watched rocket launches since the Apollo era, will witness the Artemis II liftoff as its final space launch before closing at the end of the school year, according to BBC. The school is shutting down due to declining enrollment and high maintenance costs. Former pupil Paul S. Davison, who attended Cape View from 1964 when it opened, recalled watching early human spaceflights from the school grounds, including Alan Shepard's mission in May 1961. NASA will provide live video coverage of the launch, with fueling operations coverage beginning at 07:45 on YouTube and full launch coverage starting at 12:50 EDT on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and YouTube, according to Axios.