Updated April 6, 2026 / 1:45 AM EDT
Washington — Jared Isaacman outlined the main items he’ll be watching as the Artemis II crew swings around the moon’s far side, calling the mission an essential systems test on the road back to crewed lunar landings.
Launched last week, Artemis II is the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo more than five decades ago. The four-person crew is expected to surpass the Apollo 13 distance record from Earth on Monday.
Isaacman told Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan that the top near-term priority is continued monitoring and data collection from Orion’s environmental control and life support system (ECLS). This flight is the first time people are riding aboard an Orion vehicle, he said, and engineers need comprehensive performance data to plan future missions.
“There are science experiments and lunar observations,” Isaacman said, “but learning about Orion is critically important, because Artemis III is a year away.” He noted Artemis III, targeted for mid-2027, will use the same crewed spacecraft in conjunction with lunar landers, and Artemis IV in 2028 is expected to use Orion to ferry astronauts to a lander and return Americans to the lunar surface. Humans have not visited the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
As Orion traverses the near and far sides of the moon, the crew will become the first humans to observe parts of that hemisphere up close. They will carry out observational tasks, operate multiple cameras and gather imagery and other data intended to inform planning for later missions, especially Artemis IV.
During the transit behind the moon, the capsule will experience a routine communications blackout of roughly 40 minutes when direct contact with Earth is blocked. Mission control and the crew are trained for that scenario; Isaacman said his attention during the blackout and throughout the flight remains on life-support behavior, thermal protection and the critical systems that must perform for reentry and splashdown so the crew can be recovered and returned to their families safely.
Early Monday, NASA announced that Artemis II entered the moon’s sphere of influence at 12:38 a.m. EDT — the point at which lunar gravity becomes the dominant force acting on Orion as the test flight continues.