After over three years, it’s finally time for another Artemis launch!
(And the first “Launch Thread” of this community!)
| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2026-04-01, 22:35:12 |
|---|---|
| Scheduled for (local) | 2026-04-01, 18:35:12 (EDT) |
| Mission | Artemis II |
| Launch site | LC-39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA |
| Vehicle | SLS Block 1 |
| Commander | Reid Wiseman 🇺🇸 |
| Pilot | Victor Glover 🇺🇸 |
| Mission Specialist 1 | Christina Koch 🇺🇸 |
| Mission Specialist 2 | Jeremy Hansen 🇨🇦 |
| Target Orbit | High Earth Orbit, lunar free return trajectory |
Livestreams
| Stream | Link |
|---|---|
| NASA YouTube | launch, live mission coverage, postlaunch news conference, coast |
| NASA+ | launch |
| NASASpaceflight | stakeout, launch |
| Space Affairs | tanking, launch |
| SpaceflightNow | fueling, launch |
| The Launch Pad | launch |
| Everyday Astronaut | launch |
| International Rocket Launches | launch |
Stats
Sourced from NextSpaceflight:
☑️ 1st launch from LC-39B this year
☑️ 1232 days, 15:36:16 turnaround for this pad
☑️ 1st SLS launch this year, 2nd overall
☑️ 1st crewed launch of the Orion spacecraft, 3rd overall
☑️ 1st crewed launch beyond LEO since Apollo 17 in 1972, 10th crewed launch beyond LEO overall
Mission info
Artemis II will send four astronauts in the first crewed Orion capsule in a lunar free return trajectory for a 10-day mission. The commander of the mission is Reid Weisman (NASA), the pilot Victor Glover (NASA), and the two mission specialists are Christina Koch (NASA) and Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency, CSA). Christina Koch will become the first woman to venture beyond Low Earth Orbit, and Jeremy Hansen will become the first non-American to achieve the milestone. The Orion capsule used in this mission, CM-003, was named Integrity by the Artemis II astronauts.
Because of the hydrogen boil-off due to the increased time spent in a LEO parking orbit compared to Artemis I, the mission will use a multi-translunar injection (MTLI), or multiple departure burns, to perform the translunar injection burn. The burn will be partially completed by the ICPS 2nd stage before being fully completed by the European Service Module (ESM) on the following orbit.
Artemis II Cubesats
4 CubeSat missions were selected as secondary payloads on Artemis II. They will reside within the Orion Stage Adapter from which they will be deployed after Orion has separated.
The selected cubesats are:
- TACHELES from the German space agency DLR
- ATENEA from Argentina’s space agency CONAE
- K-RadCube from the Korea AeroSpace Administration
- Space Weather CubeSat-1 from the Saudi Space Agency
Feel free to post launch updates, discussions, questions, etc. in the comments!
What’s the difference between tanking and fueling? Might be a language issue, not a native speaker.
Also, I am entirely overwhelmed with all these livestreams all showing different views, my brain wants to watch them all at once. Fucking fomo.
Mostly two terms for the same process. Technically “tanking” might be slightly more accurate, as oxidiser has to be loaded into the tanks as well as fuel.
Yeah, we are definitely spoiled for choice on this launch :)