Artemis II Launches Four Astronauts on a Flight Around the Moon

NASA launched four astronauts toward the moon Wednesday evening, the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years. The Space Launch System rocket lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. Eastern, carrying the Orion capsule the crew named Integrity, according to NASA and NBC News.

The crew is Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency. CBS News listed Wiseman as commander and Glover as pilot, with Koch and Hansen as mission specialists. NBC News reported that Hansen, making his first spaceflight, is the first Canadian headed to the moon, and that the four are the first people to launch toward it since Apollo 17 in 1972. They are also the first to fly on the SLS and Orion together.

The mission is a test flight of about 10 days, per NASA, and it will not land. After burns by the rocket’s upper stage placed Orion in an elliptical orbit around Earth, the crew was to spend about a day in high Earth orbit checking the spacecraft’s life-support systems and practicing manual piloting. On Thursday, a burn by the European-built service module was scheduled to send Orion toward the moon on a path that uses lunar gravity to bring it home, NASA said. The flyby is planned for around the sixth day, when the crew will come within roughly 6,000 miles of the surface, NBC News reported, and photograph parts of the far side that some astronauts have never seen. Splashdown is planned in the Pacific Ocean.

The countdown was not trouble-free. PBS News reported glitches involving battery indications, a loss of telemetry and a concern about the launch termination system, all resolved before liftoff. About 50 minutes into the flight, Orion briefly lost communication during a handover between satellites, NBC News reported. CBS News said NASA reported the link was restored and the cause was under investigation. NBC News quoted NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman saying there were no issues with the vehicle itself.

Hansen acknowledged the risk in remarks reported by CBS News: “It’s a test flight, and we have to be willing to take that risk.” Isaacman described the mission as “the start of something bigger than any one mission,” and a senior NASA official, Amit Kshatriya, said the test “has just begun,” according to NASA’s launch announcement.

Several questions hang over the flight. NBC News and PBS News both noted that Orion’s heat shield, which was damaged during the uncrewed Artemis I flight in 2022, must protect the crew during the fiery return to Earth, and that some experts and former astronauts have raised concerns about it.

The mission is the first step toward putting Americans back on the lunar surface. NBC News reported that Artemis III, planned for mid-2027, would test docking in low Earth orbit with at least one commercial lander from SpaceX or Blue Origin, and that a landing near the lunar south pole is targeted for Artemis IV in 2028. PBS News gave the same 2028 goal for returning humans to the moon’s surface.