Artemis II Launch: Humanity Returns to the Moon
NASA is officially targeting a two-hour launch window starting at 6:24 p.m. ET today for the historic Artemis II mission.
This 10-day flight will carry four astronauts—Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen—around the Moon and back, marking the first time humans have left low-Earth orbit in over 50 years.
Weather conditions at Kennedy Space Center are currently a promising 80% favorable for liftoff.
The mission represents a major step toward long-term lunar exploration, testing the Orion spacecraft’s life-support systems with a crew on board for the first time.
The journey will take the team approximately 4,700 miles beyond the far side of the Moon before a free-return trajectory brings them back for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean around April 10.
