It’s Official: NASA Artemis II Moon Mission Has Launched – Latest Pics, Details

We have liftoff! Once again, space exploration history has been made as humans launch towards the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

A successful launch was achieved on Wednesday 1 April 2026 at 22:35 UTC (6:35 pm EDT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending astronauts back into deep space for the first time since the Apollo era.

“We are going for our families,” said mission pilot Victor Glover.

“We are going for our teammates,” said mission specialist Christina Koch.

“We are going for all humanity,” said mission specialist Jeremy Hansen.

The four-person crew of the Artemis II mission has officially embarked on an approximately 10-day journey to fly around the Moon and return home.

It’s a journey that’s expected to carry humanity farther from Earth than anyone has ever been, breaking the record set by the crew of Apollo 13 in 1970.

“We have a beautiful moonrise. We’re headed right at it,” the crew said as the spacecraft entered Earth orbit, where it will spend approximately 23.5 hours as the crew performs system checks and settles in ahead of pushing on toward the Moon.

The Artemis II mission marks the first time humans have visited the Moon since the Apollo program ended in 1972 – a major milestone toward setting foot on the lunar surface once again.

“Fifty-three years ago, humanity left the Moon and did not return. Now we go back,” NASA associate administrator Amit Kshatriya said in a press conference prior to the launch.

“This challenge of expanding the frontier will be won … by the craftsmen, the engineers, and the industries of free nations, building together what no nation can build alone. And for all the children watching that are going to watch Artemis II, you need to hear us. An optimistic vision of the future is not naive. It is buildable.”

You can watch the launch via the YouTube embed below:

Artemis II is sending mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day circuit of the Moon in the Orion spacecraft.

It will be the first time a crew has traveled beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo era.

The test flight represents the first crewed liftoff of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion module.

The primary aim of the mission is to assess how Orion works in real conditions, including life support, navigation, and communications systems – it’s basically a dress rehearsal for a future Moon landing mission.

Artemis I, the first mission of the program, was an uncrewed practice run to iron out as many kinks as possible before putting humans in the spacecraft – carefully laying the stepping stones that will carry humanity back to the Moon.

Artemis II, the next stepping stone, has experienced some delays – its initial February launch date was postponed due to a liquid hydrogen leak, and then pushed back further due to a helium flow problem.

During the mission, when Orion loops behind the Moon on April 6, the crew is expected to travel farther from Earth than any humans in history, surpassing the record of 400,171 kilometers (248,655 miles) set by Apollo 13.

NASA has created a livestream, embedded below, so you can watch the view from Orion as it makes its epic journey around the Moon, when bandwidth allows.

“This is the opportunity… to send our crew farther than anyone has gone before,” said chief flight director Emily Nelson in the lead-up to the launch.

In addition to testing the spacecraft, the mission will also provide insight into how astronauts operate in deep space for extended periods, including communication delays and navigation far beyond the low Earth orbit occupied by the International Space Station.

The next stage, Artemis III, is currently scheduled for 2027. It will take place closer to Earth, launching crew in the Orion module on the SLS rocket to low Earth orbit to test rendezvous and docking procedures with commercial spacecraft intended for future lunar landing operations.

The fourth stage of the program, Artemis IV, is currently targeted for early 2028. NASA says the mission will aim for a crewed landing near the Moon’s south pole, where astronauts would conduct science observations and collect samples.

Related: NASA’s First Moon Crew in More Than 50 Years Is Making History Already

Those future missions hinge on Artemis II, a new demonstration of the ability to send humans to the Moon and bring them safely home again.

“It’s an incredible moment for the Artemis generation and we’re excited and we are ready to press,” Nelson said.