With a thrilling launch behind them, NASA’s Artemis II astronauts are focused on a “crazy first day” in space as they spend about 24 hours in a highly elliptical Earth orbit testing their Orion capsule before heading to the moon. Wednesday evening’s liftoff marked the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo ended 53 years ago.
The crew — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — will not land on the moon. Instead, Artemis II will loop around it, providing the crew an unprecedented view of the lunar far side and likely sending them farther from Earth than any humans before them. The flight is a test of Orion, now on its second flight and first with a crew, and of the procedures and flight controllers needed for future long-duration lunar missions and a planned lunar base.
“This is a test flight,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said. “This is the opening act in a series of missions that will send astronauts to and from the moon with great frequency as we return to stay.”
After an eight-minute ascent, two upper-stage engine burns placed the spacecraft into a 24-hour orbit designed to give the crew time to verify Orion’s communications, navigation, propulsion and life support systems. Wiseman called the opening day “crazy,” noting the tight schedule to confirm basic systems: “Can it scrub our carbon dioxide? Can it keep us alive? Can we drink water? Can we go to the bathroom?”
Shortly after reaching orbit, Koch reported a problem while activating the capsule’s toilet, a compact compartment resembling a small telephone booth. Flight controllers told her the toilet could not spin up; it could still be used for fecal collection but urine would require contingency bags. Engineers worked on a repair plan, and within about an hour Koch restored the system to normal operation.
A key early objective came about three hours into the mission when Glover took manual control of Orion to confirm the vehicle’s handling and that thrusters perform as expected. During those maneuvers he precisely positioned the spacecraft relative to the upper stage that boosted them into orbit, describing the thruster firings as producing “a little rumble, like driving on a rocky road.”
The crew’s first day was long: an 18-hour workday followed by two planned four-hour sleep periods. They were to wake between sleep periods to monitor a service module engine firing that will adjust their orbit. Mission management will review Orion’s performance before clearing the spacecraft for the critical trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn.
The planned six-minute TLI burn, expected as the spacecraft passes through the low point of its orbit, will add roughly 900 mph to Orion’s velocity and place it on a free-return trajectory to the moon. Lunar gravity will bend that trajectory back toward Earth, targeting a Pacific Ocean splashdown off Southern California around April 10.
The four-day trip to the moon will see Orion enter the lunar sphere of influence on Monday, when the moon’s gravity begins to dominate. The crew will reach distances matching and then surpassing the Apollo 13 record from 1970, with close approach to the lunar far side within roughly 4,100 miles and a maximum distance from Earth near 252,800 miles. While Orion passes behind the moon and is out of contact with mission control for about 40 minutes, the crew will have a unique chance to observe and record features of the far side — in some lighting conditions, elements never seen by human eyes.
“We are going to maximize every minute of looking at that far side,” Koch said, noting the scientific value of illuminated observations. Glover highlighted that Artemis II will include the first woman to see the far side with human eyes, suggesting potential observational differences.
After looping the moon and returning into view of Earth, the spacecraft will leave the lunar sphere of influence Tuesday afternoon and head back toward Earth, steadily accelerating under Earth’s gravity. Reentry preparations culminate in a fiery return: Orion will encounter the top of the atmosphere at about 25,000 mph, with its heat shield facing temperatures up to 5,000 degrees as the capsule decelerates. Once through peak heating the craft will slow to roughly 300 mph and deploy parachutes that will reduce the descent to an approximately 15 mph splashdown. Navy recovery teams will assist the crew into helicopters for transfer to a recovery ship and then to shore, where medical checks, debriefings and reunions await.
Before reentry, the crew plans a ship-to-ship call with the International Space Station and will hold a news conference. After splashdown and recovery, Orion will be brought aboard a recovery vessel and taken back to shore for postflight processing.
With Artemis II completed and the crew back on Earth, NASA will turn focus to Artemis III and subsequent missions, including planned tests of rendezvous and docking with lunar landers under development by commercial partners. If the schedule holds, one or two crewed lunar landings could occur in 2028.
“You’re doing it for the scientific potential, the economic potential as a technological proving ground to do the things on the moon that you’re going to need on Mars,” Isaacman said, adding the mission’s inspirational value for future generations.