NASA has released a detailed animation (above) showing how the Artemis II mission will look from launch to splashdown.
The Artemis II mission is currently scheduled to launch from Florida’s Space Coast in early 2026 and will fly four astronauts around the moon before returning to Earth. The highly anticipated mission will last about 10 days and will be the first crewed test flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and the Orion spacecraft.
The Artemis II mission will mark the first time in five decades for humans to get so close to the moon, and will pave the way for a crewed lunar landing in the Artemis III mission, which could launch as early as 2027.
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The Artemis II crew, comprising NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, have been training for the mission since their selection in April 2023.
The crew’s flight will be similar to that taken by the Artemis I mission, which in 2022 sent an uncrewed Orion capsule to within about 80 miles above the lunar surface before flying past the moon to a distance of 268,563 miles (432,194 kilometers) from Earth, a record for a human-ready capsule.
However, while the Artemis I Orion traveled about 40,000 miles (64,000 km) beyond the moon, the Artemis II crew will travel about 4,600 miles (7,400 km) past it. In doing so, the astronauts will become the first humans in more than 50 years to lay eyes on the lunar far side.
“During this period, there will be an anticipated communication blackout between mission control and the spacecraft,” NASA says in the video. “As the crew returns from the far side of the moon, Orion is drawn home by Earth’s gravity in a free return trajectory, ensuring a fuel-efficient four-day trip.”
Orion and the crew will enter Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of nearly 25,000 miles per hour (40,230 kilometers per hour). The spacecraft’s heat shield will protect it from extremely hot temperatures as it hurtles toward Earth, with parachutes slowing its descent ahead of splashdown.
The crew will then be taken from the capsule before undergoing health checks, their place in their place in the history books assured.