NASA’s Artemis II mission to fly around the far side of the Moon – The Verge

How to watch the Artemis II astronauts return to Earth

2026-04-10T16:09:42-04:00

The Artemis II crew – (from left) Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Pilot Victor Glover, and Commander Reid Wiseman – pause for a group photo inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images) | NASA via Getty Images

The Orion capsule, carrying Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, is expected to land back to Earth after a nine-day mission that set a record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from our planet.

After making a high-speed re-entry through the atmosphere, the capsule is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego at approximately 5:07PM PT / 8:07PM ET. Navy recovery crews will bring the astronauts to the USS John P. Murtha for medical checks before they helicopter back to land.

Re-entry is unquestionably the riskiest pa …

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Interior design at 25,000 mph

2026-04-10T09:04:50-04:00

(April 6, 2026) – Before going to sleep on flight day 5, the Artemis II crew snapped one more photo of the Moon, as it drew close in the window of the Orion spacecraft. | Image: NASA

As the Artemis II astronauts prepare for the most dramatic and potentially dangerous part of their mission - reentry into Earth's atmosphere - the eyes of the world will be on the Orion capsule and the people inside it. Getting glimpses into the capsule during the mission, the public has been able to observe the features of the astronaut's lives, from the screens where they receive messages from Earth to the bathroom they use and how it was fixed when it broke.

Every single piece of technology in the Orion capsule has been designed not just to withstand the epic G-forces of launch and landing, but also to optimize for human interfacing. And …

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First photos of solar eclipse from Artemis II crew look almost too good to be real

2026-04-07T11:02:00-04:00

The Artemis II astronauts have already captured some incredible sights of the Earth and Moon during their journey. Now we can add a new visual to that list: a total solar eclipse as seen from deep space. It looks almost too perfect; the Moon has crisp, but uneven edges, while bright stars dot the area around it.

Another photo shared by NASA shows the Earth, a portion of it cloaked in shadows, setting beyond the Moon. It's meant to resemble the "earthrise" image captured by the astronauts on the Apollo 8 mission nearly six decades ago.

The four-member crew witnessed the eclipse while beyond the Moon, creating a vastly different visual expe …

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Artemis II astronauts break a record, name a crater

2026-04-06T16:46:40-04:00

Artemis II is capturing images of the far side of the Moon, partially visible here, which can’t be seen from Earth. | Image: NASA

A few minutes before 2PM ET on Monday, the crew of Artemis II broke a record set 56 years ago by the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission - at over 248,655 miles, they have now traveled farther from Earth than any humans before them. They marked the occasion with a crater naming ceremony that left the whole crew embracing each other in lunar orbit.

To commemorate the Artemis II mission, the astronauts announced their suggestion to rename certain features on the Moon to honor the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity, as well as commander Reid Wiseman's late wife, Carroll. pic.twitter.com/ejfhnItDo8
- NASA (@NASA) April 6, 2026

The Artemis II crew prop …

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The Artemis II astronauts will set a new distance record from Earth today

2026-04-06T12:18:18-04:00

Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman looks back at Earth from one of the Orion spacecraft’s main cabin windows. | Image: NASA

On April 15th, 1970, Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert set a distance record when Apollo 13 traveled 248,655 miles from Earth. Nearly 56 years later, the crew of Artemis II is expected to break that record by several thousand miles when the Orion spacecraft reaches a maximum distance of 252,757 miles away from Earth later today as it completes its flight around the far side of the Moon.

NASA's coverage of the lunar flyby begins at 1PM ET today if you want to follow along at home, while the astronauts are expected to set the new distance record from Earth at 1:56PM ET. The trip around the far side of the Moon will take about six hours …

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NASA did eventually solve Artemis II’s Outlook glitch

2026-04-03T18:59:19-04:00

NASA’s Artemis II rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. | Photo: Joe Raedle via Getty Images

On Thursday, during Artemis II's journey to the Moon, commander Reid Wiseman ran into a tech issue some of us back on Earth can relate to: Microsoft Outlook wasn't working. In a conversation captured in NASA's Artemis livestream and shared on Bluesky, Wiseman reported to Mission Control: "I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those are working."

To take care of the issue, Mission Control had to remotely access Wiseman's personal computing device (PCD), a Microsoft Surface Pro. During a press conference on Thursday, Artemis flight director Judd Frieling said NASA had fixed the issue, stating, "This is not uncommon …

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NASA launches four astronauts toward the Moon on the Artemis II mission

2026-04-01T19:07:25-04:00

NASA's Artemis II flight, which is set to take four astronauts toward the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, successfully launched on Wednesday evening.

The Artemis II mission, part of NASA's Artemis program that's intended to bring humans back onto the Moon as early as 2028, will bring the four astronauts in orbit around the Moon on the first crewed flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The astronauts, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, will make the trip aboard the Orion crew capsule, and the full mission is expected to be a 10-day journey. The mission was delayed in February …

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The Artemis Moon base project is legally dubious

2026-04-05T12:03:09-04:00

NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft rest on Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on March 31, 2026, ahead of the crewed lunar mission. | Image: AFP via Getty Images

With NASA planning to launch four astronauts on Wednesday on its Artemis II mission, the race to return to the Moon is back on. The current mission will see astronauts aboard the Orion capsule travel around the Moon before returning to Earth in 10 days' time. They'll be testing out the hardware and systems that could soon see Americans standing on the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years in the Artemis IV mission scheduled for 2028. NASA isn't ready to land people on the Moon just yet, but that's the aim for the next five years: to not only get people onto the Moon but establish a lengthy human presence on its surface.

That's NASA' …

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Cold weather in Florida is pushing back the Artemis II launch

2026-02-27T09:05:52-05:00

If the February 2nd wet dress rehearsal is successful, the Artemis II mission could launch as early as February 8th. | Photo by Jim Ross / NASA

As a result of cold weather and windy conditions moving through Florida, NASA is now targeting Monday, February 2nd for a wet dress rehearsal of the Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Depending on how Monday's rehearsal goes, NASA will potentially set a launch date for Artemis II. But as a result of the weather-related delays, NASA says February 6th and 7th "are no longer viable opportunities" for a launch. Sunday, February 8th will instead be the first potential window.

NASA originally planned to conduct the wet dress rehearsal for the rocket this weekend, which is currently stacked with the Orion spacecraft on Launch Pad 39B at …

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NASA’s mission to return humans to the Moon has been delayed again until 2026

2024-12-05T15:10:24-05:00

NASA has, once again, postponed the Artemis missions that will return humans to the Moon. The Artemis II mission, which will have astronauts orbiting the Moon, had already been pushed from 2024 to September 2025 but is now planned for April 2026. Artemis III, which will return astronauts to the surface of the Moon near its south pole, is now planned to launch the following year in mid-2027.

The 10-day Artemis II mission will send four astronauts to the Moon, including Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen. The mission won't include a landing, but it will be the first time astronauts launch aboard NASA's Spa …

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