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Artemis II Launches April 1, Sending Humans Back Around the Moon for the First Time Since Apollo

NASA’s Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026, at 6:24 p.m. EDT, beginning the agency’s first crewed lunar flyby of the Artemis era and the first human mission around the Moon in more than 50 years. The flight uses NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft and carries a four-person crew: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen.

The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission (left to right): NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman (seated), Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. – Credit NASA

For readers across Florida, the launch is another reminder that the Space Coast remains one of the most important gateways for global aerospace activity. Artemis II is not a lunar landing mission. Instead, it is designed as a roughly 10-day test flight to prove Orion’s deep-space systems with astronauts on board before later Artemis missions attempt a return to the lunar surface.

The mission is historic not only because of its destination, but because of who is on board. NASA has said Artemis II includes the first woman, the first Black astronaut, and the first Canadian ever assigned to a lunar mission. That makes this flight both a technical milestone and a symbolic one for the next chapter of American-led space exploration.

In honor of Artemis II – Music Credit: ” I am A Rocket Man” by: Joseph Maguire

Artemis II timeline: key dates and mission milestones

April 1, 2026: Artemis II launched from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center during a two-hour launch window that opened at 6:24 p.m. EDT. NASA had also published backup launch opportunities through April 6 in case weather or technical issues forced a delay.

Flight Day 1: After reaching orbit, Orion began early spacecraft checkouts, including solar array deployment and onboard systems verification, as NASA and the crew prepared for the next major burn needed to send the vehicle toward the Moon.

Flight Day 2: The mission plan called for a translunar injection burn, the maneuver that sends Orion out of Earth orbit and onto its path toward the Moon.

Mid-mission: Artemis II is expected to swing around the Moon on a free-return style trajectory, traveling about 252,000 miles into space and reaching thousands of miles beyond the far side before beginning its return to Earth. Reuters reported the mission would take the crew farther from Earth than any humans have traveled before.

About 10 days after launch: Orion is expected to return to Earth for a Pacific Ocean splashdown, completing the first crewed lunar flyby mission since the Apollo program.

Just can’t get enough of these images from Lockheed Martin

Why Artemis II matters

Artemis II follows the uncrewed Artemis I mission from 2022 and serves as NASA’s first chance to test Orion’s life-support and mission systems with astronauts in deep space. NASA says the mission is intended to lay the groundwork for a sustained return to the Moon and, longer term, future missions toward Mars.

That bigger timeline matters. Reuters reported Artemis II is part of a broader NASA effort to rebuild a long-term human presence near and on the Moon, while also moving against a backdrop of renewed international competition in lunar exploration.

For Florida, Artemis II is more than a launch-day spectacle. It is a reminder that some of the biggest moments in modern aerospace still begin here, on the same coast that helped define the Apollo era. This week’s mission did not put boots on the Moon, but it moved the Artemis program from promise into crewed deep-space reality.