The four astronauts who will fly around the Moon as soon as next week and their backups arrived at Kennedy Space Center on March 27, 2026. Full of enthusiasm, they also conveyed that they know weather or other factors could delay the launch, but whenever it happens, they are ready.
NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen and their backups — NASA's Andre Douglas and CSA's Jenni Gibbons — flew themselves from Johnson Space Center to KSC in three T-38 jets, landing about 2:15 pm ET.
Crew Arrival
The crew was greeted by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, CSA President Lisa Campbell, and NASA Acting Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development Lori Glaze. The crew has been in quarantine since March 18 so they had to maintain some distance. Only the crew made remarks at the welcome ceremony.
The launch is scheduled for Wednesday, April 1, at 6:24 pm ET. The window is open through April 6. It can only take place when the Earth and Moon are correctly aligned. If they do not launch during those dates, they will have to wait until April 30 when the next window opens.
Commander's Statement
"We went through the Flight Readiness Review. We are ready to launch. But we're also humans trying to load millions of pounds of propellant onto a giant machine and send it to the moon. So it could very well be that we get on April 1 and we're behind timeline... April 1st is not a guarantee. April 6th is not a guarantee. We got to go feel this whole thing out." — Reid Wiseman, Commander
Mission Details
Artemis II will not attempt to orbit or land on the Moon. Instead, it will fly a free-return trajectory similar to Apollo 13, swinging around the Moon and back to Earth even if the Orion Service Module's propulsion system does not perform as planned. Artemis II could reach a distance of 402,000 km (250,000 miles) from Earth, potentially setting a new record for human spaceflight.
The crew will speak with reporters again on Sunday, March 29, at 11:30 am ET from their quarantine quarters.
Upcoming Schedule
- March 29, 11:30 am ET: Crew answers media questions from quarantine
- March 29, 2:00 pm ET: NASA news conference
- March 30, 5:00 pm ET: NASA news conference following Mission Management meeting
- March 31, 1:00 pm ET: NASA pre-launch news conference
- April 1, 6:24 pm ET: Launch (target)
Zero Gravity Indicator
By tradition, astronauts take a Zero Gravity Indicator with them. Lucas Ye, a second-grader from Mountain View, CA, won a contest with his "RISE" plush toy inspired by the Earthrise photo taken by the Apollo 8 crew in 1968. A micro SD card holding names of people who signed up to have their names flown around the Moon will be placed inside.