Overview
- NASA, which set the launch target for Wednesday, April 1 at 6:24 p.m. EDT, plans a two-hour window with backup opportunities through April 6 and live streams on NASA+ and YouTube in English and Spanish.
- Artemis II will send four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—on an approximately 10-day loop around the Moon to prove Orion’s life-support and other systems with people aboard.
- The Universidade de Vigo’s Aerospace Technology Group, working with Integrasys selected by NASA, will track Orion’s S-band radio signal and use tiny Doppler shifts in frequency to pinpoint the spacecraft’s position from Earth.
- NASA plans daily mission status reports from Johnson Space Center starting April 2, and it is targeting an April 10 splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with recovery teams standing by to assist the crew.
- Public engagement includes a free sign-up that stores participants’ names on a digital device aboard Orion, part of a broader push to open access to the mission through virtual guest programs and round-the-clock updates.