NASA’s Artemis II mission, launched on April 1, 2026, marks the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972, sending four astronauts on a ten-day lunar flyby aboard the Orion spacecraft named Integrity. As of April 9, 2026, the crew is in the final stages of their return journey, preparing for re-entry after achieving unprecedented milestones like surpassing Apollo 13’s distance record of 248,655 miles from Earth.
Mission Crew and Historic Firsts
The crew includes Commander Reid Wiseman (NASA, second flight), Pilot Victor Glover (NASA, second flight, first person of color beyond LEO), Mission Specialist Christina Koch (NASA, second flight, first woman beyond LEO), and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen (CSA, first flight, first non-U.S. citizen beyond LEO). Wiseman also became the oldest astronaut to venture near the Moon, while the team set a record for the most people in deep space at once, topping Apollo 8’s three.
Key Mission Phases
Artemis II tested the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion in deep space on a free-return trajectory, looping around the Moon’s far side at a closest approach of about 4,067 miles. Highlights included high Earth orbit checkouts, manual proximity operations with the spent upper stage, a trans-lunar injection burn, and a seven-hour lunar flyby on April 6 where the crew observed unprecedented lunar sights, proposed crater names (Integrity and Carroll), and witnessed a solar eclipse.
On Flight Day 7 (April 7), the first return correction burn refined their path home, with crew stowing gear amid wake-up music now compiled into a NASA Spotify playlist.
Current Status and Re-entry
As Orion accelerates toward Earth, reaching speeds up to 25,000 mph and facing 5,000°F temperatures—half the Sun’s surface heat—the crew braces for entry interface around 7:53 p.m. ET on April 10 (splashdown at 8:07 p.m. PDT in the Pacific near San Diego). A steeper re-entry profile addresses heat shield concerns from Artemis I, ensuring crew safety without major redesigns for this flight.
Experiments and Innovations
Payloads like AVATAR (organ tissue analogs for radiation study) and ARCHeR (health monitors) gathered data on deep space effects, alongside optical laser communications testing at 260 Mbps and four international CubeSats for radiation and space weather research. These advances pave the way for Artemis III in 2027, now focused on low Earth orbit tests before lunar landings.
This success boosts NASA’s accelerated Artemis cadence, targeting annual Moon missions amid global competition.
