At 06:25 p.m. EDT (03:25 p.m. PDT) on April 1st, the Artemis II mission lifted off from the historic Launch Pad-39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The four-person crew - consisting of Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot), and mission specialists Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen - began the ten-day journey that would take them around the Moon and back to Earth. This mission is the first time astronauts will travel beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and will serve as a "dress rehearsal" for future missions to the lunar surface.
The mission builds on the success of the Artemis I mission, which consisted of an uncrewed Orion spacecraft conducting a circumlunar flight. That mission tested the capabilities of the main components in the Artemis Program: the Space Launch System (SLS), the Orion capsule, and the European Service Module (ESM). This time, the mission crew will periodically take control and fly the spacecraft manually during their circumlunar journey. This will test the spacecraft's ability to operate as designed, ensuring that it can deliver astronauts to the Moon.
The twin solid rocket boosters ignited first and delivered more than 75% of the thrust for the first two minutes of flight. The RS-25 engines ignited next and remained at full thrust during the ascent. At 06:37 p.m. EDT (03:37 p.m. PDT), the solid rocket boosters separated from the Core Stage while the four RS-25 engines continued to fire. One minute later, the Launch Abort System separated from the top of the rocket, leaving the Core Stage and Orion spacecraft (named Integrity) after they had passed through the densest layer of Earth's atmosphere.
At 6:43 p.m. EDT (03:43 p.m PDT), main engine cutoff occurred, and the Core Stage separated from the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) and the Orion spacecraft. The ICPS delivered the final push with its single RL10 engine to deliver Integrity into a higher orbit. By 6:59 p.m. EDT (03:59 p.m. EDT), the Integrity deployed its four Solar Arrays Wings (SAWs) extended from the European Service Module (ESM) and began providing power to Integrity.
At 08:00 p.m. EDT (05:00 p.m. PDT), NASA held a postlaunch news conference from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the conference, Administrator Jared Isaacman praised the mission and crew for achieving this historic flight:
At a brief 54-year intermission, NASA is back in the business of sending people to the Moon. We have arrived at this point through a sustained effort and national commitment, the work of thousands across the agency, our industry partners, and our international allies. I want to personally thank the ground crews, pad controllers, and the entire workforce here at Kennedy Space Center. This mission belongs as much to you as it does to the crew.
At 11:37 p.m. EDT (08:11 p.m. PDT), the crew successfully completed the proximity operations demonstration, one of the mission’s early objectives. During the 70-minute activity, the crew guided the spacecraft through a series of controlled approach and retreat maneuvers using the detached ICPS as a reference target. This test has provided valuable data on how Integrity performs during manual close-range maneuvering around another spacecraft.
This is essential for the upcoming Artemis missions, which will rendezvous and dock with a Human Landing System (HLS) during the next three missions. This will include an orbital rendezvous test (Artemis III) and the first missions to the lunar surface (Artemis IV and V).
Earlier today, at 9:15 a.m. EDT (06:15 a.m. PDT), NASA announced that Integrity had successfully completed its Perigee Raise Maneuver (PRM). Shortly thereafter, the mission management team announced that Integrity was a “Go” for the Apogee Raise Burn (ARB) that will send the spacecraft on a translunar injection towards the Moon. The spacecraft will ignite its main engine on the ESM tonight at 7:49 p.m. EDT (04:49 p.m. PDT), which will provide thrust for five minutes and 49 seconds.
NASA will continue to provide 24/7 coverage of the flight on its YouTube channel (see below), and updates are available on the Artemis II NASA Blog site.
Further Reading: NASA
