Shoot for the Moon - The Artemis II Mission

The liftoff of Artemis I, the predecessor of Artemis II which used the same SLS rockets to launch. Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

UPDATE 2/3/2026: After experiencing problems in the wet dress rehearsal, including a fuel leak, NASA has delayed the launch date. They are now aiming for the March 6-11 launch window at the earliest.

Artemis II is set to bring humans back to the Moon no earlier than February 8. We might be days away from this milestone in space exploration and travel. But what’s the purpose of Artemis II and what’s its mission?

Artemis II, the second mission of the Artemis Program, is the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. While Artemis II won’t be landing on the Moon, it is a pivotal step in our return to the Moon’s surface as well as our travels beyond.

When performing something as hazardous as space flight, it’s important to take small steps to ensure absolute safety and minimize all dangers to the crew. As such, where Artemis I was an unmanned mission to prove the equipment, Artemis II can be thought of as a test run to prove the safety of the equipment for humans before risking an actual landing. We may have landed on the Moon 50 years ago, but the technology we use today is different from back then and hasn’t yet been put through its proper paces.

The Artemis II crew, featuring NASA Astronauts Christina Koch (left), Victor Glover (top), and Reid Wiseman (bottom), and Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen (right). Image Credit: NASA

The intrepid crew of Artemis II includes the mission commander, Reid Wiseman, the pilot, Victor Glover, and the mission specialists, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. Among this crew is a list of firsts for space travel. Of people to leave low-Earth orbit and travel to the Moon, Glover will be the first person of color, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American. Hansen represents the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and is the only non-NASA astronaut aboard Artemis II.

Artemis II’s mission will last approximately 10 days. At T-minus zero, Artemis II’s space launch system (SLS) rockets will ignite, producing over 8.8 million pounds of thrust, which will propel the rocket and its crew skyward. After about two minutes, once at a velocity of 3,100 miles per hour, at an elevation of about 30 miles, the rocket will shed its boosters, and the core stage will kick in to continue the ascent. An additional eight minutes will deposit Artemis II’s Orion spacecraft, the crew module, in a highly elliptical orbit with a maximum distance above the Earth’s surface of 1,400 miles. A mere 18 minutes into their 10-day journey, and they will officially be the humans to have traveled farthest from Earth since Apollo 17, beating the inhabitants of the International Space Station by over a thousand miles.

Upon reaching their orbit, the crew will perform a series of checks to ensure everything is in working order before traveling too far from Earth. Once all systems are checked and Orion has been positioned properly in Earth orbit, the translunar injection will begin. Orion will ignite its thrusters to push it from an Earth orbit towards the Moon. The trip towards the Moon will take about four days.

Rather than entering lunar orbit, Artemis II will perform a flyby of the Moon with a free-return trajectory. With this trajectory, even if there’s an engine failure, the Moon’s gravity will automatically guide the spacecraft back towards Earth. Orion and its crew will pass around the dark side of the Moon, getting about 4,000 miles from its surface at the closest. Once behind the Moon, there will be a communications blackout, as the Moon will be between Artemis II and the Earth, blocking all forms of communication. Not only will they be out of contact with Earth, but they might break Apollo 13’s record for furthest humans from Earth during this time, making them as disconnected from the rest of humanity as has ever been possible. Apollo 13 made it 248,655 miles away from Earth during their emergency loop around the Moon in an effort to return to Earth as soon as possible. Whether or not Artemis II breaks the record depends on the Moon’s distance from Earth at the time of the mission.

Orion will complete its loop around the Moon and use its gravity to send it back towards Earth and begin its four-day return trip. Upon approaching Earth, Orion will reenter Earth’s atmosphere at about 25,000 MPH. This will be the fastest crewed reentry ever attempted. The spacecraft will first bounce off of the atmosphere for a skip reentry. This bounce will bleed some of the speed, allowing for a more controlled descent. Splashdown will occur in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego, where it will be recovered by the U.S. Navy.

A graphic showing the planned path of the Artemis II mission. Image Credit: NASA

By the end of their 10-day journey, the crew of Artemis II will have traveled a total of over 1.4 million miles and will have sped up to 33 times the speed of sound. They will have been 1,000 times further away from Earth than any human in the past 50 years. Throughout it all, they will have gathered data and experience vital to putting humans back on the Moon. With the successful Artemis II mission behind us, we’ll be ready for humanity’s return to the surface of the Moon with the Artemis III mission as early as 2028.