Kennedy Space Center Will Soon Begin Ground Preps for Artemis 3...

NASA / Kim Shiflett

NASA’s Mobile Launcher Arrives at Vehicle Assembly Building (News Release)

After successfully being used to launch the Artemis II lunar test flight on April 1, NASA’s Mobile Launcher is now inside NASA Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in Florida in preparation for the Artemis III test flight mission's rocket-stacking operations.

NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program rolled the launcher on a 4-mile trek from Launch Complex 39B to the VAB along the crawlerway on April 16. The trip, which normally takes eight to 12 hours on top of the agency’s Crawler-Transporter 2, had several built-in pauses to allow teams to rest. The launcher arrived inside the VAB at 11:40 a.m. EDT on Friday, April 17.

Standing 380 feet tall, the Mobile Launcher – which will be used to assemble, process and launch the Artemis III mission’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft – contains all the connection lines, known as umbilicals, and ground support equipment that will provide the rocket and spacecraft with the power, communications, fuel and coolant necessary for launch. This was the Mobile Launcher’s last solo trek out to the launch pad ahead of integration of the SLS rocket, and it will remain inside the VAB until it is ready to return to the pad with the rocket.

Now inside the VAB, technicians and engineers will finish conducting Artemis II post-launch inspections and repairs in preparation for the Artemis III mission next year.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / John Kraus


NASA / Kim Shiflett


NASA / Kim Shiflett

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: THE ARTEMIS 2 CREW IS SAFELY BACK ON EARTH!

NASA \ Josh Valcarcel

Over nine days after embarking on their historic lunar trip from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Artemis 2 astronauts are safely back on Earth! Their Orion capsule Integrity successfully splashed down into the Pacific Ocean 50 miles off the coast of San Diego at 5:07 pm, PDT yesterday.

A few hours after splashdown, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen were transported back to shore by way of helicopters from the U.S. Navy recovery ship, USS John P. Murtha. The Artemis 2 crew then took a NASA charter jet back to Houston to reunite with their families. Navy personnel fully secured Integrity inside the well deck of the John P. Murtha earlier this morning.

With Artemis 2 now in the history books, NASA is looking ahead to Artemis 3...which is scheduled to launch on an Earth-orbiting test flight later next year! The core stage booster for Artemis 3's Space Launch System rocket will roll out of NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans on April 20th—in preparation for its trip to Kennedy Space Center to complete final assembly and eventual launch preps. Stay tuned!


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Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class David Rowe


Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class David Rowe


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NASA / Bill Ingalls


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NASA / Joel Kowsky

Do you have rocket fever? We have something for that.

Digital creators and social media storytellers are invited to register to attend the rollout of the Artemis III core stage from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans later this month. Registration is open from April… pic.twitter.com/fJwP00uhEi

— NASA (@NASA) April 7, 2026

The Artemis 2 Astronauts Continue Their Journey Back to Earth...

NASA

Crew Prepares to Come Home (News Release)

On their last full day in space, the Artemis II crew began the morning with Lonesome Drifter by Charley Crockett as they approached Earth at 147,337 miles.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen will continue preparing for their return to Earth set for Friday, April 10, including reviewing re-entry and splashdown procedures and conducting a return trajectory correction burn.

Cabin configuration for re-entry

Koch and Hansen will begin by stowing equipment that they have had out during the mission, removing cargo and locker netting, installing and adjusting crew seats to ensure all items are secured before their return to Earth. As part of the day’s activities, the crew will review the latest weather briefing, recovery force status, and entry timeline. Throughout the day, they will also work through post‑landing operations.

Another push home

Orion’s thrusters are scheduled to ignite for the second return trajectory correction burn at 9:53 p.m. EDT to fine‑tune the spacecraft’s path towards Earth. The maneuver will further refine Orion’s trajectory and ensure that the spacecraft remains aligned for atmospheric re-entry. During the burn, Hansen will review the procedure steps and monitor Orion’s guidance, navigation and propulsion systems.

Preparing for splashdown

As Artemis II nears its return to Earth, NASA teams on the ground are completing final preparations for Orion’s re-entry and splashdown around 8:07 p.m. (5:07 p.m. PDT) on Friday, April 10, off the coast of San Diego.

The agency will continue to provide updates about the test flight during the daily mission briefing. Today’s mission status briefing is at 3:30 p.m. and will stream on NASA’s 24/7 coverage on the agency’s YouTube channel.

During re-entry, the service module will separate around 7:33 p.m., about 20 minutes before Orion reaches the upper atmosphere southeast of Hawaii. At 7:37 p.m., a final trajectory‑adjustment burn will fine‑tune the flight path before the spacecraft begins a series of roll maneuvers to safely distance itself from departing hardware. Orion will reach its maximum velocity — approximately 23,864 mph — just before entry interface.

As Orion descends through about 400,000 feet, the spacecraft will enter a planned six‑minute communications blackout at 7:53 p.m. as plasma forms around the capsule during peak heating. The crew is expected to experience up to 3.9 Gs in a nominal landing profile.

After emerging from blackout, Orion will jettison its forward bay cover, deploy its drogue parachutes near 22,000 feet at 8:03 p.m., and then unfurl its three main parachutes around 6,000 feet at 8:04 p.m. to slow the capsule for splashdown off the coast of San Diego.

Within two hours after splashdown, the crew will be extracted from Orion and flown to the USS John P. Murtha. Recovery teams will retrieve the crew using helicopters, and once aboard the ship, the astronauts will undergo post‑mission medical evaluations before returning to shore to board an aircraft bound for NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Source: NASA.Gov

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🚨📰 #USNAVY UPDATE: USS John P. Murtha to support NASA's Artemis II mission

SAN DIEGO – Amphibious transport dock ship USS John P. Murtha (LPD 26) is slated to serve as the recovery ship for the Orion spacecraft and its crew upon their return from the historic Artemis II… pic.twitter.com/eMUDr04rhP

— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) April 8, 2026

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: THE ARTEMIS 2 ASTRONAUTS COMPLETE THEIR HISTORIC FLYBY OF THE MOON...

NASA

I'm at a loss for words in terms of what to say about all of these amazing images that were taken by the Artemis 2 astronauts during their historic lunar flyby yesterday, so I'll let these pictures do most of the talking!

From 'Earthset' photos to otherwordly images of the Orion spacecraft passing behind the Moon during a solar eclipse that couldn't be witnessed by anyone here on Earth, this treasure trove of pictures will obviously be gracing science and history books for generations to come. Well-done, Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy!


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Orion Continues to Stay the Course on its Journey towards the Moon...

NASA

Outbound Trajectory Correction Burn Update (News Release)

NASA’s Artemis II crew in Orion continues on a precise trajectory to fly by the Moon on Monday, April 6. Flight controllers in mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston elected to cancel the spacecraft’s first outbound trajectory correction burn, as the spacecraft’s trajectory is on the right flight path.

This burn was the first of three planned trajectory adjustments in the mission timeline to fine‑tune the spacecraft’s velocity and trajectory. Any adjustments needed may be incorporated into a subsequent correction burn.

Source: NASA.Gov

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The Artemis 2 Astronauts Are Officially Headed to their Lunar Destination...

NASA / Reid Wiseman

Orion Completes TLI Burn, Crew Begins Journey to the Moon (News Release)

NASA’s Artemis II crew is on the way to the Moon.

After the mission management team polled “Go” on Thursday, NASA’s Orion spacecraft fired its main engine for five minutes and 50 seconds beginning at 7:49 p.m. EDT, to successfully complete the translunar injection (TLI) burn, sending the crew in Orion out of Earth orbit and on a trajectory towards the Moon.

Orion’s main engine provides up to 6,700 pounds of thrust, enough to accelerate a car from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.7 seconds. At the time of the burn, Orion’s mass was 58,000 pounds and burned approximately 1,000 pounds of fuel during the firing.

Crew members are also spending time exercising on the spacecraft’s flywheel exercise device. During exercise, teams on the ground monitored the spacecraft’s air revitalization system, which maintains a breathable, comfortable cabin environment for the crew, and assessed how exercise impacts movement of the spacecraft.

The flywheel uses a simple cable‑based mechanism that supports both aerobic exercises like rowing and resistive movements such as squats and deadlifts. Operating much like a yo‑yo, the device provides resistance proportional to the force applied, allowing loads up to 400 pounds. This capability is especially important in deep space, where astronauts do not have access to the extensive exercise equipment aboard the International Space Station.

On the station, crews rely on more than 4,000 pounds of exercise hardware spread across roughly 850 cubic feet. In contrast, Orion’s flywheel weighs just 30 pounds and is about the size of a carry‑on suitcase—meeting the strict mass and volume constraints of deep‑space missions while still supporting crew health and reentry readiness.

The crew members – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen – have successfully checked out the AVATAR scientific payload.

Engineers also determined that a brief loss of two-way communications between the ground and crew that occurred shortly after the crew reached orbit was due to a ground configuration issue involving the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite system. The issue was rectified quickly with no impact to mission operations.

Lunar Science Team Prepares for Flyby

After the TLI burn that sent Orion on its path to the Moon, the lunar science team began building a Lunar Targeting Plan, a guide to what the crew will look at on the Moon’s surface during its approximately six-hour observation on Monday, April 6.

The targeting plan will include documenting features that can help scientists understand how the Moon and Solar System formed, such as craters, ancient lava flows, and cracks and ridges created as the Moon’s outer layer slowly shifted over time.

One feature that will be added to the plan is a solar eclipse, which will last for nearly an hour towards the end of the flyby window. During the eclipse, the Sun will be hidden from view as it moves behind the Moon from the perspective of Orion. The crew will see a mostly-dark Moon at this time — an opportunity for them to look for flashes of light from meteoroids striking the Moon’s surface, dust lofting above the edge of the Moon, and deep space targets, including planets.

While the Sun slides behind the Moon, the crew will observe the solar corona, the Sun’s outermost atmosphere, while it’s visible.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Reid Wiseman

THE FIRST CREWED LUNAR FLIGHT SINCE 1972 HAS BEGUN!

NASA / Keegan Barber

Liftoff! NASA Launches Astronauts on Historic Artemis Moon Mission (News Release)

Spurred by American ingenuity, astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission are in flight, preparing for the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years.

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT Wednesday, sending four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft on a planned test flight around the Moon and back.

“Today’s launch marks a defining moment for our nation and for all who believe in exploration. Aboard Orion are four remarkable explorers preparing for the first crewed flight of this rocket and spacecraft, a true test mission that will carry them farther and faster than any humans in a generation,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Artemis II is the start of something bigger than any one mission. It marks our return to the Moon, not just to visit, but to eventually stay on our Moon Base, and lays the foundation for the next giant leaps ahead.”

The successful launch is the beginning of an approximately 10-day mission for NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen. As the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program, among its objectives, the flight will demonstrate life support systems for the first time with crew and lay the foundation for an enduring presence on the Moon ahead of future missions to Mars.

After reaching space, Orion deployed its solar array wings, enabling the spacecraft to receive energy from the Sun, while the crew and engineers on the ground immediately began transitioning the spacecraft from launch to flight operations to start checking out key systems.

“Artemis II is a test flight, and the test has just begun. The team that built this vehicle, repaired it, and prepared it for flight has given our crew the machine they need to go prove what it can do,” said NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya. “Over the next 10 days, Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy will put Orion through its paces so the crews who follow them can go to the Moon’s surface with confidence. We are one mission into a long campaign, and the work ahead of us is greater than the work behind us.”

About 49 minutes into the test flight, the SLS rocket’s upper stage fired to put Orion into an elliptical orbit around Earth. A second planned burn by the stage will propel Orion, which the crew named Integrity into a high-Earth orbit extending about 46,000 miles beyond Earth. After the burn, Orion will separate from the stage, flying free on its own.

In several hours, a ring on the rocket’s upper stage, which will be a safe distance away from the spacecraft, will deploy four CubeSats – small satellites from Argentina’s Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, German Aerospace Center, Korea AeroSpace Administration, and Saudi Space Agency – to perform scientific investigations and technology demonstrations.

The spacecraft will remain in high-Earth orbit for about a day, where the crew will conduct a manual pilot demonstration to test Orion’s handling capabilities. The astronauts, with Mission Control Center teams at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, will continue checking spacecraft systems.

If all systems remain healthy, mission controllers will give Orion’s European-built service module a command to conduct the translunar injection burn on Thursday, April 2. This move is an approximately six-minute firing to send the spacecraft on a trajectory that will simultaneously carry crew around the Moon, while also harnessing lunar gravity to slingshot them back to Earth.

During a planned multi-hour lunar flyby on Monday, April 6, the astronauts will take photographs and provide observations of the Moon’s surface as the first people to lay eyes on some areas of the far side. Although the lunar far side will only be partially illuminated during the flyby, the conditions should create shadows that stretch across the surface, enhancing relief and revealing depth, ridges, slopes and crater rims that are often difficult to detect under full illumination. Crew observations and other human health scientific investigations during the mission, such as AVATAR, will inform science during future Moon missions.

Following a successful lunar flyby, the astronauts will return to Earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean.

As part of the Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send Artemis astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / Aubrey Gemignani


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The Clock Is Now Ticking Down to the First Crewed Flight to the Moon in Over 53 Years...

NASA / Bill Ingalls

NASA’s Artemis II Launch Mission Countdown Begins (News Release)

The countdown for NASA’s Artemis II test flight is underway at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with members of the launch team arriving at their consoles inside the Rocco Petrone Launch Control Center. The onsite countdown clock started ticking down at 4:44 p.m. EDT to a targeted launch time of 6:24 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1. Artemis II is the first crewed launch of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft.

With countdown officially underway, engineers are powering up flight hardware, checking communication links, and preparing the rocket’s cryogenic systems for the precise fueling sequence required to load hundreds of thousands of gallons of super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. At Launch Complex 39B, teams will begin filling the sound suppression system’s massive tank with water, which will unleash a protective deluge at liftoff to shield the vehicle from the roar of its own engines.

The Artemis II crew, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, remains in Astronaut Crew Quarters inside NASA Kennedy’s Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building. The crewmates have spent the final countdown phase focused on readiness and technical verification, remaining in quarantine under strict health monitoring and completing medical checks to ensure fitness for launch. They have been following a controlled sleep schedule and nutrition plan to maintain energy and hydration for launch, while continuing to receive regular updates on the rocket’s configuration and weather conditions from crew quarters.

NASA and weather officers with the U.S. Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45 continue to pay close attention to weather conditions ahead of tanking operations. The weather forecast for launch day shows an 80% chance of favorable weather conditions with primary concerns being cloud coverage and the potential for high winds in the area. Teams will continue to monitor the weather in the coming days.

Broadcast coverage begins with live views and audio commentary of tanking operations beginning at 7:45 a.m. on April 1, on NASA’s YouTube channel, as teams load propellant into the SLS rocket. Full coverage on NASA+ begins at 12:50 p.m. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.

Source: NASA.Gov

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Clock is running. pic.twitter.com/8in1FtYFXh

— Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid) March 31, 2026

The First Astronauts to Embark on a Lunar Journey Since 1972 Have Arrived in Florida for their Mission...

NASA / Kim Shiflett

Artemis II Crew Arrives at Launch Site, Shares Moon Mascot (News Release)

The four astronauts set to fly around the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II test flight arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, March 27. NASA continues to target as soon as Wednesday, April 1, for launch within a two-hour window that opens at 6:24 p.m. EDT.

During remarks at Kennedy’s Launch and Landing Facility, Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman announced “Rise,” designed by Lucas Ye of Mountain View, California, as the zero-gravity indicator that will fly with the crew around the Moon. “Rise” was inspired by the iconic Earthrise moment from the Apollo 8 mission. A zero-gravity indicator is a small plush item that typically rides with a crew to visually indicate when they are in space.

The design was selected from more than 2,600 submissions from over 50 countries, including K-12 students, that were part of a Moon Mascot contest. During the selection process, the crew narrowed a list of 25 finalists to five top designs, including:

-- “Big Steps of Little Octopus,” Anzhelika Iudakova, Finland
-- “Corey the Explorer,” Daniela Colina, Peru
-- “Creation Mythos,” Johanna Beck, McPherson, Kansas
-- “Lepus the Moon Rabbit,” Oakville Trafalgar School, Canada
-- “Rise,” Lucas Ye, Mountain View, California

While work continues to prepare the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, Orion spacecraft, and ground systems for launch, the crew – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen — will review their launch day timeline and mission activities, participate in medical checkouts, and spend time with family.

Source: NASA.Gov

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