Apr 01, 2026 — The Artemis II crew entered high Earth orbit about two hours after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center, NASA said, and will spend roughly 24 hours testing Orion’s systems before a planned translunar injection burn Thursday if all checks are nominal.
NASA described high Earth orbit as extending “about 46,000 miles beyond Earth.” Orion’s solar arrays have fully deployed and are powering the spacecraft as it continues toward the moon.
The mission launched Wednesday evening, beginning a roughly 685,000-mile, 10-day journey. The Orion spacecraft will loop the crew around the moon and travel farther into deep space than humans have before. Photographs from the launch captured the Space Launch System rocket and Orion ascending from Cape Canaveral.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called Artemis II America’s “grand return to the moon” and said astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover Jr., Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen “are safe. They’re secure, and they’re in great spirits.” He pledged continued public updates and said officials will “hold our celebration until this crew is under parachutes and splashes down off the West Coast.”
Isaacman also noted a temporary communications outage about 51 minutes into the flight, during a planned satellite handover; ground teams were briefly unable to receive data from the crew or spacecraft, but communications have since been restored.
– ABC News’ Briana Alvarado