Image: NASA
Artemis II
Mission Profile
| Launch date | 2026-04-01 |
|---|---|
| Launch vehicle | Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1 |
| Spacecraft | Orion (with ESA-built European Service Module) |
| Target | Moon |
| Type | Crewed |
| Cost | Artemis program cumulative cost ~$93B through 2025 (NASA OIG) |
| Mass | Orion stack ~26 t at TLI; SLS Block 1 ~2,600 t at liftoff |
| Duration | ~10 days |
| Partners | ESA (European Service Module), CSA (Canadian Space Agency), Lockheed Martin (Orion prime), Boeing (SLS core stage) |
| Instruments | Orion Optical Navigation, Callisto voice-assistant tech demo, Space Biology payloads |
Prime Contractors
Companies that built, launched, or operate this mission. Tickers link to their investor profile.
- Lockheed Martin
- Airbus Defence & Space
- Boeing
- Northrop Grumman
- L3Harris (Aerojet Rocketdyne)
Overview
Artemis II is the first crewed flight of the Artemis program and the first time humans will travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The roughly 10-day flight will carry NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a free-return trajectory around the far side of the Moon, reaching approximately 7,400 km beyond the lunar surface before returning to Earth. The flight will validate Orion's life-support, navigation, and deep-space communications systems with crew on board, building on the uncrewed Artemis I mission that flew in late 2022. Beyond the engineering verification, Artemis II is the first integrated test of NASA's deep-space crew operations infrastructure since the Apollo era, including the new Mission Control Building 30 flight control rooms reconfigured for cislunar operations and the recovery forces aboard USS Somerset. The European Service Module supplies propulsion, electrical power, thermal control, and the consumables (water, oxygen, nitrogen) the crew will need for the journey. Hansen will be the first non-American to fly on a lunar mission, a direct outcome of the Canada-US Artemis treaty that traded Canadarm3 development for crew slots. Artemis II is the gateway flight that must succeed before Artemis III can attempt the first crewed lunar landing of the 21st century.
Key Milestones
2014-12-05
Orion EFT-1 uncrewed test flight (heritage)
2022-11-16
Artemis I uncrewed lunar flyby launches
2023-04-03
Artemis II crew announced at Johnson Space Center
2024-12-05
NASA delays Artemis II to April 2026 over heat-shield analysis
2026-04-01
Launch from Kennedy Space Center pad 39B
2026-04-10
Pacific Ocean splashdown — first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17