The Digester
science

Artemis II launches with four astronauts on 10-day lunar flyby

NASA’s Artemis II lifts off from Kennedy Space Center with three American astronauts and one Canadian for a roughly ten-day Orion mission that will fly past the Moon to validate systems and demonstrate manual proximity operations.

Apr 1st 2026 · United States

Insights

  • Launch set for 1 April from Kennedy Space Center aboard the SLS at 18:24 local Florida time.
  • Crew of four: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen.
  • Mission is a roughly ten-day, about 1.1 million kilometer Orion free-return flight around the Moon.
  • Orion will orbit Earth, take four days to reach the Moon, fly about 7,500 kilometers beyond it and return on a safe free-return trajectory.
  • Primary objectives are system checks, a manual proximity operations demonstration and testing of the European Service Module engines.
  • Backup launch windows are available 3 to 7 April if the first attempt is scrubbed.

Sources