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• Artemis II begins its journey: Four astronauts blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida this evening on a monumental 10-day mission to circumnavigate the moon.
• About the astronauts on board: The mission crew includes NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch along with the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen.
• What comes next: The upper part of the SLS rocket has separated from the astronauts’ capsule, kicking off a 70-minute manual test-drive of the Orion capsule.
• Why this mission matters: The historic and risky lunar venture will mark the first time astronauts return to the vicinity of the moon in more than 50 years. The mission could travel farther from Earth than any human ever has, breaking the Apollo program’s distance record.
Orion's toilet troubles appear to be resolved
Shortly after launch, a nightmarish scenario was revealed during a press briefing: There was an issue with the only toilet onboard the Orion capsule. Naturally, teams in mission control treated it with urgency.
The crew has been incredibly busy since launch, but they made time to troubleshoot the problem with the help of mission control.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch implemented tests that yielded successful results. So now everyone can breathe a sigh of relief – especially the crew – that Orion has a working toilet. Otherwise, that 10-day mission would probably feel much, much longer.
A fleet of small satellites is about to release from Artemis II
At just over five hours after launch, a new chapter will begin for some tiny satellites that hitched a ride to space with the Artemis II mission.
The shoebox-size satellites called cubesats will each deploy from the spacecraft during one-minute intervals.
The satellites, supplied by space agencies from Germany, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Argentina, will measure the different aspects of the harsh environment of space.
- Germany’s TACHELES will see how space impacts electrical components that could be used on future lunar vehicles.
- K-Rad Cube contains humanlike tissue to measure the effects of space radiation across the Van Allen belts surrounding Earth – two dangerous bands of radiation resulting from trapped concentrations of high-energy solar particles that interact with Earth’s atmosphere, according to NASA.
- Saudi Space Agency’s CubeSat will measure space weather, or energetic particles unleashed by the sun that can impact Earth.
- Argentina’s ATENEA will test radiation shielding methods and a long-range communications link.
What mission controllers are watching now
The next 24 hours are crucial.
If all goes well, the astronauts will be on their way to the moon by this time tomorrow night. But overnight and into tomorrow afternoon, mission controllers will be conducting extensive checkouts of the spacecraft — and any significant issues could prompt a change of plans.
Teams will be “looking to make sure that the life support systems work, that the vehicle’s healthy,” said Norm Knight, NASA’s director of the Flight Operations Directorate. “That’s why we spend a day checking out the systems.”
Launch can also “shake, rattle and roll” the spacecraft, Knight added. “And you can imagine what that does to the systems.”
Only if all the vehicle checks come back clear will the group be given the go-ahead to fire up Orion’s engine once again and head to the moon. The maneuver, called the translunar injection burn (TLI), it’s scheduled to happen around 8 pm ET tomorrow.
If issues do arise, however, mission controllers can opt to command Orion to steer itself back home, bringing a premature end to this test flight.
Next up: The astronauts get a nap
The astronauts have stored their orange suits, tucked into comfier clothes, and now they’re getting ready for another crucial milestone: a nap.
They’ll only get a few hours to sleep, however. In the early morning hours, they’ll wake up for another engine burn. That’s when the Orion capsule will fire up its engine again to raise the low-end of its orbital path.
Also ahead — the crew will give their daily medical conference, sharing any ailments or issues with ground controllers. They’ll have such meetings daily during the mission, according to NASA.
Crew signs off from test drive
Victor Glover, the Artemis II pilot, just concluded an hour-plus-long test drive, manually piloting the Orion capsule for the first time ever.
At one point as the crew was wrapping up and watching the ICPS — the upper part of the SLS rocket that blasted the crew to orbit — fade away from view, Glover exclaimed, “Oh look at that - wow.”
“Great flying with you Houston,” he said, using the city-name moniker astronauts use when addressing mission control.
Shortly after the test concluded, the Orion capsule fired its engine to move further away from the ICPS as the rocket stage headed back toward Earth.
Victor Glover will fly the vehicle without this key device
The ICPS, the upper part of the SLS rocket, has separated from the astronauts’ capsule. This kicks off the 70-minute test-drive — formally called the proximity operations demonstration.
As the test begins, Orion will perform an “automated backflip” to turn around and face the detached ICPS.
“At approximately 300 feet away, Orion will stop its relative motion,” according to NASA. Then, pilot Victor Glover will take the reins, getting as close as 30 feet from the ICPS.
Crucially, Orion is not outfitted with “rangefinders,” a type of sensor that can measure precise distances between objects. Instead, the crew will rely on their eyes and ears to ensure they’re making the correct approach — not getting too close.
CNN asked Glover about this milestone during a recent news conference:
The Artemis II crew prepares to take Orion for a test drive
Now that Orion has reached a stable orbit, the crew is looking forward to one of the first milestones of the mission: taking the spacecraft for a manual test drive.
The test, called the Proximity Operations Demonstration, will enable the crew to safely practice docking Orion and piloting the capsule in manual mode, a step that will be necessary during future missions. Their docking target will be the ICPS, or the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, the upper segment of the rocket that propelled Orion on its journey in space.
The ICPS will separate from Orion about three and a half hours after launch and serve as a stand-in for any spacecraft Orion may dock to during future missions.
“Orion we developed for autonomous capability all the way to docking, so the crew does not need to take over in a manual way,” said Howard Hu, manager of NASA’s Orion Program. “But we want to make sure we understand our manual capabilities. The demonstration gives the crew an opportunity to really, I would say, test drive the car.”
The crew will practice piloting Orion toward the ICPS as well as around it for about an hour, starting with flying about 328 feet (100 meters) away from the upper stage before flipping over and then coming within about 32.8 feet (10 meters) of it, Hu said. Then, the crew will manually back away, pause and fly toward specific reflectors on the side of the upper stage.
For a closer look at how this test drive works, CNN’s Tom Foreman provides a virtual look inside this mission milestone.
CNN's Tom Foreman breaks down the incredible hardware and engineering of Artemis II, designed to take humans farther into space than ever before.
Carney celebrates first Canadian to go on a moon mission
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney touted his country’s role in the Artemis II mission, as Canada “becomes only the second nation on Earth to send an astronaut on a lunar mission.”
Jeremy Hansen, a fighter pilot and a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, is part of the Artemis crew and made his first flight to space today. The husband and father is originally from London, Ontario, and grew up on a farm.
“This remarkable achievement is a testament to Colonel Hansen’s exceptional skill, and to the decades of discipline, dedication, and perseverance that brought him to this moment. It is also a testament to Canada and our world-class science, our cutting-edge technology, and our remarkable astronauts,” Carney said in a statement.
He said the launch today underscores that Canada is a “nation of explorers, builders, and innovators.”
Carney spoke with US President Donald Trump about the Artemis II mission today.
CNN’s Paula Newton contributed reporting to this post.
NASA is looking into an issue...with the toilet
Ah, the unfortunate realities of spaceflight.
During a news briefing after the launch, Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator, said that mission controllers are tracking a couple minor issues — including one with the onboard toilet.
“We had a controller issue with the toilet when they spun it up, so we got to work through that,” he said. “That’s going to take a maybe a few hours of troubleshoot.”
All jokes aside, NASA has made clear this is a test mission — and they’re expecting to have to work through small hiccups with the crew comforts on board that have never been tested in space before. And it’s not clear whether the problem affects the toilet’s functionality.
NASA chief Jared Isaacman can likely sympathize. During his first trip to space in 2021, the SpaceX capsule he flew on had a toilet problem.
Artemis II crew will seek out an "Earthrise" opportunity
One of the most famous and memorable images to emerge from the Apollo program was “Earthrise,” captured during Apollo 8, showing the Earth appearing to rise dramatically above the lunar surface.
The Artemis II crew is eager to find their own Earthrise moment, said Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.
While nothing has been confirmed yet, it’s definitely a topic of discussion and a wishlist item for the team when the lunar flyby on the sixth day of the mission approaches, Glaze said. Any images of such an iconic moment may not be shared live, but they will be made available to the public as soon as possible, she added.
NASA Administrator defines success for Artemis II: "No early off ramps"
NASA chief Jared Isaacman was just asked how he’ll define mission success — and he gave a fairly direct answer: Artemis II will be deemed a victory when the astronauts splash down after a 10-day mission.
That indicates Isaacman won’t be satisfied with this test flight if it’s brought to a premature end, forcing the Orion capsule to dive back toward Earth and abandon its lunar flyby attempt.
“No early off ramps,” Isaacman remarked.
NASA is troubleshooting a comms issue
It’s been about two hours of flight, and all is well — except for a hiccup with the communications.
“About 51 minutes into the flight, during a planned handover between satellites, the Orion spacecraft underwent a communications issue, leading to a temporary partial loss,” NASA chief Jared Isaacman said during a news briefing following the launch.
“The uplink from Cap Com to the crew was being heard by the crew, but we can’t hear the responses for a brief period of time,” he added. “Cap Com” is a term for “Capsule Communication” which is the one-the-ground side of the link between the crew and mission control.
NASA is working to figure out what caused the problem — but the system is now up and running correctly.
Orion's booster pushes its orbit higher
Nearly 50 minutes after reaching orbit, the Orion spacecraft’s booster — the upper part of the SLS, called the ICPS — fired up its engine to loft the vehicle’s orbit a bit higher.
The spacecraft is in an oval-shaped orbit, and when that happens, two terms are used to define its path:
- Apogee: The highest point in the orbital path
- Perigee: The lowest point in the orbital path
Before this ICPS burn, Orion was on a very unstable trajectory, with a perigee that was set to put the vehicle just 17 miles above Earth’s surface if it had kept flying on that path.
With this assist from the ICPS, however, the perigee has been boosted to about 115 miles — putting even the lowest part of the flight path safely above the thick inner band of Earth’s atomosphere.
Next, ICPS conducted another burn intended to raise Orion’s apogee to more than 43,730 miles above Earth.
SLS is the most powerful rocket to ever reach orbit
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket is the most powerful to reach orbit, or to fly crew. While it’s not the most powerful launch vehicle ever built — a title owned by SpaceX’s Starship — it exceeds the capabilities of anything NASA has built before. Here’s a breakdown of how various rockets stack up.
- Falcon Heavy: This is SpaceX’s 230-foot-tall (70-meter-tall) rocket that previously held the title for most powerful operational rocket in the world. It has about 5 million pounds of thrust or roughly one-third of Starship’s power.
- Saturn V: The famous NASA rocket that powered the Apollo moon landings of the 20th century put out about 7.6 million pounds of thrust at takeoff. That’s still less than half of Starship’s expected power, and SpaceX has said upgrades could give Starship three times the thrust of the Saturn V. It stood at about 360 feet (110 meters) tall.
- The Space Shuttle: NASA’s workhorse launch system in the post-Apollo era, the shuttle had two solid rocket boosters that gave off about 5.3 million pounds of force at liftoff. It was about 180 feet (55 meters) tall.
- Space Launch System: NASA’s new moon rocket, which made its debut launch with Artemis I in 2022, is currently the most powerful rocket in operation. It produces about 8.8 million pounds of thrust — just over half the Starship’s expected output. It’s 212 feet (65 meters) tall.
- Russian N1 rocket: This was Russia’s megamoon rocket of the 20th-century space race. And while it was never operational (all four launch attempts failed), Elon Musk has said it’s the closest relative of Starship’s design. The N1 was expected to give off more than 10 million pounds of thrust at liftoff — still 40% less than Starship.
- New Glenn: The brand new rocket developed by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin can pack up to 3.8 million pounds of thrust during take off. That’s significantly less than the others on this list, in part because New Glenn is designed to be a “heavy lift” rocket, which isn’t quite the same category as Starship, which has been dubbed “super heavy lift.”
- Starship: Standing at nearly 400 feet (121 meters) tall, SpaceX’s rocket — at least a recent version of the prototypes the company has been test flying on a suborbital trajectory — packed 16.7 million pounds (7,590 tons) of force at liftoff.
The Artemis II crew's journey in space has begun. Now what?
The Artemis II astronauts are preparing for the rest of their 10-day journey by doing what anyone who has ever moved into a new space does: settling in.
The crew needs to test their potable water dispenser, which will provide drinking water and be used to rehydrate meals, as well as for crucial systems like the toilet and the scrubber that removes carbon dioxide from the air.
The astronauts will also get comfortable, shedding their orange launch spacesuits and putting on normal clothes.
They will also rearrange the interior of the Orion capsule to make the camper van-size space more functional as a living and working space for the duration of the mission.
Where is Artemis II heading?
The Artemis II mission is aiming to take a scenic loop around the moon before returning to Earth in 10 days.
For this mission, NASA officials define deep space as beyond Earth orbit, which means Artemis II’s venture around the moon is considered a deep-space journey.
Because Artemis II’s trajectory was based on its launch date, the mission will set a new record.
- Distance from the moon at closest approach during lunar flyby = 4,112 statute miles
- Farthest distance from the Earth = 252,799 statute miles, which is 4,144 miles farther than Apollo 13.
NASA will share a mission update soon
Excitement continues at the press site post-launch, and we’ll be hearing an update from NASA officials sooner than expected.
The agency said it will share an update on the mission live at 8 p.m. ET during a briefing. Stay tuned and stick with us — we’ll be sure to post all of the highlights.
In photos: The historic Artemis II moon mission
The Artemis II rocket launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. The monumental 10-day journey that will take a four-person crew beyond the moon’s far side is underway. See more photos in our gallery.
Relive the moment Artemis II lifted off
It’s hard to describe the excitement and thunderous roar of the rocket’s powerful engines as the Artemis II mission lifted off, carrying the first crewed mission to the moon in decades.
In case you missed it, here’s every thrilling moment from the launch of this historic mission, years in the making.
Orion fans out its power-generating solar arrays
The Orion crew capsule is flying free with the four astronauts tucked inside. And it’s now getting in position to sustain itself on this 10-day trip by fanning out its solar panels.
These arrays are each 23 feet (7 meters) long and have 5,000 solar cells to convert sunlight to electricity. They’re each attached to the European Service Module, which is a cylindrical attachment that sits at Orion’s base.
Built by NASA’s foreign partner, the European Space Agency, it’s the lifeblood of the mission, feeding oxygen, power and other essential support to the astronauts’ spacecraft.
