Overview
- NASA released a 49-hour-50-minute countdown for Artemis II that targets liftoff as early as April 1 in Florida with additional daily opportunities if needed.
- The plan schedules cryogenic fueling of the Space Launch System about 11 hours before liftoff and crew boarding about 4 hours before launch.
- The four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen—arrived at Cape Canaveral and began final preparations.
- NASA will carry live coverage and real-time telemetry, with its Artemis Real-time Orbit Website and the NASA app showing the capsule’s position, speed and distance once data flows from Mission Control.
- The nine-to-ten-day mission will orbit Earth, head for a lunar flyby without landing and return, following delays caused by hydrogen leaks, helium-flow issues and battery replacements that NASA says are now resolved.