Artemis II set for April 1
NASA is targeting April 1 for the Artemis II crewed lunar flyby — a ten-day mission that will orbit the Moon with four astronauts after a unanimous readiness vote announced. The flight is the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years and a key dress rehearsal for Artemis III and future deep-space operations.
[NASA completed]nasa.gov its Flight Readiness Review on March 12, 2026, with mission managers polling “go” in a unanimous risk assessment. The [agency set]spacepolicyonline.com April 1, 2026 at 6:24 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time as the no-earlier-than launch time and identified a primary six-day window from April 1–6 (with an additional opportunity later in the month). Rollout of the stacked SLS‑Orion to Launch Complex 39B [is targeted]nasa.gov for March 19, 2026. [Engineers traced]spacepolicyonline.com a February helium‑flow anomaly in the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) to a bad seal that was replaced and tested, and teams also replaced batteries in the Flight Termination System and Launch Abort System. The four‑person crew [was listed]nasa.gov as Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, all of whom participated in the flight readiness review. Mission [planning details]nasa.gov show the ICPS will perform multiple burns on Flight Day 1 (including a perigee‑raising burn to roughly 100 miles), be repurposed as a docking target for proximity‑operations practice, then be disposed of into the Pacific before Orion’s translunar injection on Flight Day 2. Prime contractors supporting Artemis II [are named]spacepolicyonline.com as Boeing (SLS core), Northrop Grumman (solid rocket boosters), Aerojet Rocketdyne (engines), United Launch Alliance (ICPS), Lockheed Martin (Orion spacecraft), Airbus (Orion service module) and Amentum (Exploration Ground Systems).
