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NASA Targets April 1 Launch for Artemis II After Final Go Review

The flight will test Orion systems to clear the way for future lunar landings.

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FILE - The NASA Artemis II rocket, with the Orion spacecraft aboard, leaves the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)
Media aim their remote cameras on NASA’s Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, atop a mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B, Sunday, March 29, 2026, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis II test flight will take Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), on a 10-day mission around the Moon and back. NASA/Bill Ingalls

Overview

  • NASA plans to open a two-hour window at 6:24 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 1, with 80% favorable weather and backup opportunities through April 6.
  • Mission managers completed a readiness review Monday and pulled go to proceed, following repairs to fix a liquid hydrogen leak and clogged helium hardware.
  • The roughly 10-day test will send Orion into high Earth orbit, then on a free-return loop around the Moon, before a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
  • The crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—will check life support, navigation, communications, and manual controls with people aboard for the first time.
  • Success would mark the first human trip to lunar distance since Apollo and set up later Artemis flights that aim to return astronauts to the Moon’s surface.