Artemis II Orion

Artemis II was the first time in more than 50 years that people flew out to the Moon. On 1 April 2026, NASA's Space Launch System rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying the Orion capsule, which the crew had named Integrity. On board were four astronauts: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.

The crew did not land. They looped around the far side of the Moon on 6 April and came home, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego on 10 April 2026, after almost ten days in space. On the way they travelled 406,771 km from Earth, farther than any humans had ever gone, beating the Apollo 13 record from 1970. The flight tested Orion with people inside before future Moon landings.

The mission

After launch, Orion first spent time in a high orbit around Earth while the crew checked its systems. Then it headed for the Moon. At closest approach on 6 April the capsule passed about 6,545 km above the far side. Shortly afterwards it reached its farthest point from Earth, 406,771 km away. In total the crew flew about 1.1 million km. A Navy ship, USS John P. Murtha, picked them up after splashdown.

Firsts and records

Artemis II was the first crewed flight of the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft, and the first time people had left low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Four people in deep space at once also set a new record; the most before was three. Christina Koch became the first woman to fly around the Moon, Victor Glover the first person of colour, and Jeremy Hansen the first person from outside the United States.

What the crew saw

The astronauts took more than 7,000 pictures of the Moon. From behind it they watched a solar eclipse, as the Moon blocked the Sun, and saw Earth rise and set over the lunar horizon. They studied old lava flows and craters, spotted tiny flashes where meteoroids struck the Moon's dark side, and even suggested names for two lunar craters.

On the 3D Moon

On the 3D Moon you can see Orion on its long path out and around the far side of the Moon, the crewed flight that took four astronauts, including a Canadian, back to the Moon after more than 50 years.