Artemis II
What do you already know about Artemis II?
Artemis II launched on the 1st April 2026 at 6.35pm in America (11.35pm in the UK). It launched from Kennedy Space Centre, in Florida.
This mission is a test flight and its main purpose is to test the SLS rocket, Orion Spacecraft and all the other equipment necessary to fly safely away from the Earth.
It is now on a ten day mission taking astronauts to the Moon. While the astronauts won’t be landing on the Moon during this mission they be orbiting around it, somewhere between 4600 and 6000 miles above the surface and will they will be able to see a view that most us will only ever see in a photograph…the far side of the Moon.
In the past the Apollo astronauts have seen and recorded the far side of the Moon, but the Artemis astronauts will be the first humans to see the Moon’s south pole, where future missions hope to land.
The astronauts will travel 250,000 miles from Earth, the furthest humans have ever been, going further away than Apollo 13’s record when it reached 248,655 miles from Earth. The whole journey will be 685,000 miles!
Below you can see the flight path the astronauts will take.
The Crew
The astronauts on this mission are NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Reid Wiseman is the commander. He has previously been to the International Space Station, staying up in space for 165 days between May to November in 2014.
Christina Koch is a mission specialist. She has also been up to the ISS, staying for 328 days from March 2019 to February 2020. She is the first women to travel to the Moon.
Victor Glover is the pilot on the mission. He spent 168 days on the ISS, from November 2020 to May 2021.
Jeremy Hansen is also mission specialist. He is the first Canadian to travel to the Moon and has never been in space before!
Reid Wiseman - commander (front centre), Christina Koch - mission specialist (left), Victor Glover - pilot (back centre) and Jeremy Hansen - mission specialist (right)
Artemis II astronauts before launch
The Launch
At 6.35pm the Artemis II mission launched up into space. The engines started, and the Solid Rocket Boosters and Core Stage blasted the rocket into the air at 17,000 miles per hour, 22 times the speed of sound!
The Solid Rocket Boosters, having finished getting the rocket off the ground dropped away after just two minutes. Within eight minutes the spacecraft was in space! Once out of Earth’s atmosphere the Core Stage then dropped away too.
The Orion’s solar panels were then unfolded and put into action, helping to provide some solar power to the Orion.
About 49 minutes into the flight, the SLS rocket’s upper stage fired to put Orion into orbit around Earth. A second burn by the upper stage then pushed Orion into a high orbit about 46,000 miles above the Earth. After the burn, Orion separated from the stage, flying free on its own.
For the first 24 hours or so of the mission they continued to orbit the Earth. During this time they tested the Orion Capsule’s life support systems, as well as the navigation and communication systems to ensure everything would work correctly once they are in deep space. They were only given the ‘go’ to head out of Earth’s orbit once everything looked good!
Leaving Earth's Orbit
On day two of the mission the astronauts were given the ‘go’ to leave Earth’s orbit and head to the Moon.
This involved a five minute and 50 second engine burn, known as the translunar injection burn, to push the spacecraft at 25,000 miles an hour out of Earth’s gravity that has been keeping them in orbit.
This was done at 7.49pm on Thursday 2nd April (12.49am on Friday 3rd in the UK), just over 25 hours into the mission since launch. They were then on a four day journey to the Moon in the Orion spacecraft, nicknamed Integrity by the crew.
Journey to the Moon
Days three to five of the mission were spent getting closer and closer to the Moon.
During the journey they were kept very busy. They spent time recording their journey taking photographs to send back to Earth, as well as recording videos for Earth to tell us all about the mission and even answered people’s questions during these recordings.
They also spent a lot of time testing equipment, manually steering the spacecraft, practising for emergencies, for example practising CPR and testing out their spacesuits.
On the journey they have also been exercising and of course eating, which must be strange in space. They are only sleeping for about four hours at a time!
To ensure they were headed in exactly the right direction the astronauts also completed several correction burns, using the engine to adjust their direction slightly. For the rest of the time the engines were shut off and their journey was controlled by gravity!
On day 5 the Moon’s gravitational pull on the Orion spacecraft became stronger than Earth’s.
Lunar Flyby
At the beginning of day six of the mission the astronauts had reached the Moon. They also officially beat the record set by the Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970, travelling further away from Earth than anyone, ever!
Just after breaking this record they named two previously unnamed features on the Moon, a crater called Integrity, named after their spacecraft, and a crater that looks like a bright spot called Carroll, named after Reid Wiseman’s wife who sadly died in 2020.
After breaking this record they actually went quite a lot further, travelling 252,756 miles away from Earth. While going around the Moon the closest the Orion spacecraft was from the surface of the Moon was 4,067 miles.
It was when they were the furthest away that maybe one of the scariest moments of the mission happened. The astronauts flew behind the Moon and lost contact with Earth for 40 minutes. This happened because the Moon was blocking the signals from Earth to the spacecraft. The astronauts and Mission Control knew this would happen but it still must have been a bit scary!
They got to see some amazing views of the Moon, with the Earth behind it and even a lunar eclipse from the far side of the Moon.
Coming Home
After orbiting the Moon the astronauts began their journey home. After such a busy day observing the Moon, the astronauts were given a rest day and had more sleep. They did however have a call from the astronauts on the International Space Station!
During the journey home they completed three planned trajectory correction burns, which is where they turn the engines on to power up the spacecraft and ensure they are heading in exactly the right direction, this time back to Earth.
They also continued testing the equipment and practising for emergencies, including making a radiation shelter inside the Orion capsule to protect themselves from solar flares.
The closer they got to home the more time the astronauts spent preparing for re-entry, especially on the last day, changing the Orion capsule back to how it had been when they launched up into space.
Re-entry to Earth
While astronauts often return through the atmosphere from going up to space, returning from the International Space Station for example, this return journey was much more dangerous. This is because of the speed the Orion capsule returned at.
When the astronauts returned they hit the Earth’s atmosphere at 24,661 miles an hour. ISS crews return from low Earth orbit at roughly 17,500 miles an hour. This extreme speed of re-entry created a lot of heat, heating the outside of the capsule to around 1,650 degrees Celsius! A heat shield on the Orion capsule protected the astronauts and they were also wearing their spacesuits again for added protection.
Thirty two minutes before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere the service module was separated from the Orion capsule. A few minutes later the Orion capsule then readjusted position, using a 19 second burn, to make sure the heat shield was facing in the right direction for re-entry.
During the re-entry the astronauts lost contact with Mission Control again for six minutes, which again everyone knew would happen.
Once safely through the atmosphere, they slowed down massively, using eleven parachutes to slow the capsule down even further, from 300 miles an hour to 17 miles an hour to splash down safely in the ocean.
They splashed down off the west coast of America at 7:07 pm in America (1.07 am in the UK!) on Friday 10th April.
Home Safe!
Once safely landed in the Pacific Ocean a whole rescue team worked together to get the astronauts out of the Orion capsule. The capsule was secured then a ‘front porch’ was inflated for the astronauts to step out onto. Helicopters then lifted the astronauts one by one off the front porch and taken on a three minute journey to the ship waiting for them.
Throughout this they had medical checks to make sure they were ok. They all looked thrilled to be home safe!
What we've learnt...
Artemis II launched on the 1st April 2026. It is the first manned mission to the Moon in over 50 years.
There were four astronauts on board. Their names were Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen.
The first day of the Mission was spent orbiting Earth and testing everything to check it was safe for the astronauts to continue.
On day two of the mission the astronauts left Earth’s orbit and travelled for 4 days towards the Moon.
On day six the astronauts successfully completed their lunar flyby, orbiting the Moon.
The astronauts travelled 252,756 miles from Earth, the furthest humans have ever been!
On the 11th April the astronauts re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and safely splashed down.
Test your knowledge...
The Artemis II Quiz
If you click the correct answer the box will turn green. If it’s the wrong answer it will turn red and then show you what the correct answer was. Remember to read or listen to the questions carefully! If you are listening to the questions using Text To Speech make sure you pause it after it has read the questions and answers so you have a chance to think!
#1. How far did the crew of Artemis II travel away from Earth?
#2. How long did it take the astronauts to reach space?
#3. How far was the whole journey?
#4. How long did the crew lose contact with Mission Control when they orbited the Moon?
#5. On what day did the astronauts leave Earth’s orbit?
Results
I really hope you have enjoyed learning all about Artemis II, with me Zoom!
Question Time...
Why are the astronauts not wearing their spacesuits up in space?
By Isla
During the launch the astronauts wore their bright orange spacesuits. They will also wear them during their return to Earth. Inside the capsule during most of the journey they don’t actually need to wear them as the Orion provides the astronauts with air to breathe and everything else they need to survive up in space.
The spacesuits are like personal wearable spacesuits that are custom made for each of the astronauts! Up in space the spacesuits could be used to provide them with oxygen to breathe, and to remove the carbon dioxide they breathe out, if there was an emergency in the capsule. It also keeps them at the right temperature, allows them to still eat and drink and would even protect them from fire and smoke. The suits would be able to support them for six days if needed.
One of the tasks the astronauts will complete during the mission is to test the suits in emergency conditions to see if they protect the astronauts as they are expected to.
Any other questions?
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All images on this Artemis II Facts for Kids page are NASA images, and images taken from their live feed of the Artemis II mission.