Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed mission under the Artemis program and will launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

It will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon. Among objectives, the agency will test the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems for the first time with people and lay the groundwork for future crewed Artemis missions.

A variety of prelaunch, launch, and mission events for NASA’s Artemis II mission around the Moon will stream online. The agency is targeting no earlier than Wednesday, April 1, for the test flight during a two-hour window that opens at 6:24 p.m. EDT, with additional launch opportunities through Monday, April 6.

Briefings, events, and 24/7 mission coverage will stream on the agency’s YouTube channel, and events will each have their own stream closer to their start time.  

The date and/or time of all events are subject to change:

Monday, March 30

• 5 p.m.: Following a mission management meeting, NASA will host a news conference to provide an update on launch preparations.

Tuesday, March 31

• 1 p.m.: NASA will hold a prelaunch news conference.

Wednesday, April 1

• 7:45 a.m.: Coverage of tanking operations to load propellant into NASA’s (SLS) Space Launch System rocket begins, including views of the rocket and audio from a commentator.

• 12:50 p.m.: NASA+ coverage of launch begins. Coverage will continue on YouTube after Orion’s solar array wings deploy in space.

• Approximately two-and-a-half hours after launch, NASA will hold a postlaunch news conference after the SLS rocket’s upper stage performs a burn to send Orion and its crew to high Earth orbit.

Mission coverage

NASA’s real-time coverage will continue throughout the mission on YouTube. 

NASA’s crawler-transporter 2, carrying the agency’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft, arrives Feb. 25, 2026, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to troubleshoot the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. Once complete, the SLS rocket will roll back to Launch Complex …