Artemis II: everything you need to know about NASA’s manned mission from Earth to the Moon

This April 1st is scheduled for an important date in the history of the NASA and the aerospace industry with the takeoff of the mission Artemis II that will lead humanity to fly over the Moon again, the first time in more than half a century.

The launch is planned from the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, and is part of the ambitious Artemis program, which seeks to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon as a preliminary step to future missions to Mars.

Artemis II is scheduled to launch from Wednesday, April 1, 2026 at 6:24 p.m. EST. And we say “from” because the launch window could be extended until April 6, depending on situations such as technical and weather conditions.

At the moment, NASA predicts 80% favorable weather for that day, with the main concerns being cloudy or very windy.

But anyway, here’s the start of the launch window in different countries:

Peru: 17:24
Colombia: 17:24
Ecuador: 17:24
Mexico (CDMX): 16:24
Chile: 18:24
Venezuela: 18:24
Argentina: 19:24
Uruguay: 19:24
Brazil (Brasilia): 19:24
United States (ET): 18:24
United States (PT): 15:24
Spain (peninsular): 00:24 April 2

For those who cannot travel to Caño Canaveral in Florida (USA), NASA will offer coverage of the launch, lunar flyby and its return to Earth through its NASA+ channel and the Amazon Prime streaming service.

NASA’s social media also offers a glimpse into the mission, with its YouTube channel showing live video of the launch:

The Artemis II mission is important in several aspects, not only being the first manned mission to approach lunar orbit since 1972 when the Apollo 17 mission landed on the Moon, but also the second mission of the Artemis program, which has the ambitious mission of establishing a permanent presence of humanity on the Moon and preparing for an exploration of Mars.

Thus, the Artemis program began in November 2022 with an unmanned flight in 2022 to test the SLS, NASA’s new lunar rocket designed to return repeatedly to the Moon in the coming years, and the Orion spacecraft, created to facilitate lunar landings.

This second mission is the inaugural crewed flight of both vehicles, so their journey orbiting the Earth and Moon will involve an extensive battery of tests and training to see how the rocket and spacecraft systems function in various circumstances to prepare them for a future lunar landing.

This will arrive not with the Artemis III mission, planned for mid-2027 and consisting of another series of tests, but with Artemis IV in early 2028 in which humans will finally return to the surface of the satellite.

Meanwhile, preparation for the lunar base will occur at the end of the same year with Artemis V, in which a second team of astronauts will begin constructing the first building on the surface of the satellite.

A mission that the United States sees as a priority not only for scientific but also geopolitical reasons, with other countries having the ambition to put people on the Moon in the next decade, including its main rival China, which is preparing the mission to land on the south pole of the satellite in 2030 as a new milestone of its Chang’e space program, named after a lunar goddess.

Other countries that have expressed their intention to visit the lunar surface include the US’s one-time rival in the space race Russia, as well as emerging powers such as India. Meanwhile, the European Union and Japan have secured some of the action by reserving seats on future Artemis missions.

The reason? Apart from the countless scientific possibilities, the Moon is also a possible treasure chest in terms of elements and minerals that we rarely find on Earth, which will become more and more valuable as they are exploited on our planet. So maintaining control over the satellite could ensure the prosperity of future generations.

Artemis II: everything you need to know about NASA’s manned mission from Earth to the Moon

ByEditor

By Editor

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