NASA has announced that the crewed Artemis II mission to the Moon is scheduled for launch no later than April 2026, according to a press release detailing media accreditation timelines published on the agency’s website.
The publication states that the launch is planned for early 2026, with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen set to embark on an approximately ten-day test flight around the Moon and back to Earth.
"The crew will lift off from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft on the agency’s powerful (SLS) Space Launch System rocket to help confirm the systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration," the message posted on there website says.
Artemis II Will Not Land on the Moon
Artemis II will be NASA’s first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years and the second mission in the Artemis program. Its primary goal is to test all systems needed for deep-space human travel before astronauts return to the Moon’s surface on Artemis III.
The mission will launch on the Space Launch System (SLS) — NASA’s most powerful rocket — carrying the Orion spacecraft with a crew of four astronauts: a commander, a pilot, and two mission specialists. After launch, Orion will perform a series of critical maneuvers, including an Earth orbit insertion, a perigee-raising burn, and finally a trans-lunar injection that sends the crew toward the Moon.
Artemis II will not land on the Moon. The spacecraft will perform a lunar flyby, reaching a distance of about 10,000 km beyond the far side of the Moon, giving the crew a sweeping view while testing communication, navigation, propulsion, life-support, and re-entry systems in real deep-space conditions.
The astronauts will spend roughly 10 days in space. After completing the lunar flyby, Orion will return to Earth at a high-speed atmospheric re-entry, testing the heat shield under mission-level conditions, and finally splash down in the Pacific Ocean for recovery by NASA and the U.S. Navy.
The flight is currently slated for no earlier than April 2026, though the date may shift depending on hardware readiness and safety reviews. The mission is a critical step toward NASA’s long-term goal of building a sustainable human presence on and around the Moon.
