Artemis II

Artemis II

The Orion spacecraft and its European Service Module for the Artemis II mission being prepared for launch in March 2025
Names	Artemis 2 Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2)
Mission type	Crewed lunar flyby
Operator	NASA
Mission duration	10 days (planned)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Orion CM-003
Crew
Crew size	4
Members	Reid Wiseman Victor Glover Christina Koch Jeremy Hansen
Start of mission
Launch date	NET April 2026
Rocket	Space Launch System Block 1
Launch site	Kennedy Space Center, LC-39B[1]
End of mission
Recovered by	U.S. Navy (San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock)
Landing site	Pacific Ocean (planned)
Flyby of Moon
Distance	6,400 mi (10,300 km) (planned)[2]
Artemis II mission patch Official crew portrait, clockwise from left: Koch, Glover, Hansen and Wiseman Artemis program ← Artemis I Artemis III →

Artemis II is a planned mission under the NASA-led Artemis program, set to be the second launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft. Scheduled to launch in early 2026, the mission will carry four astronauts on a free-return trajectory around the Moon and back to Earth. It will be the first crewed mission to venture beyond low Earth orbit and travel to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Initially designated as Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2), the mission was originally planned to retrieve samples from a captured asteroid as part of the now-canceled Asteroid Redirect Mission. It was later renamed following the establishment of the Artemis program.