A variety of prelaunch, launch, and mission events for NASA's Artemis II mission around the Moon will stream online. The agency is targeting no earlier than Wednesday, April 1, for the test flight during a two-hour window that opens at 6:24 p.m. EDT, with additional launch opportunities through Monday, April 6.
Artemis II is NASA's first crewed mission under the Artemis program and will launch from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon. Among objectives, the agency will test the Orion spacecraft's life support systems for the first time with people and lay the groundwork for future crewed Artemis missions.
Briefings, events, and 24/7 mission coverage will stream on the agency's YouTube channel, and events will each have their own stream closer to their start time. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.
The date and/or time of all events are subject to change. A full listing of coverage activities for Artemis II is available online:
The following highlighted prelaunch and launch events are all listed in Eastern time:
Friday, March 27
- 2:30 p.m.: Agency leadership, including NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) President Lisa Campbell, and other leaders, will greet the astronauts as they arrive at NASA Kennedy. The Artemis II crew members will answer questions from media in attendance.
Sunday, March 29
- 9:30 a.m.: The Artemis II crew members will virtually answer reporters' questions from their quarantine facility.
- 2 p.m.: NASA will hold a news conference to provide a status update for launch.
Monday, March 30
- 5 p.m.: Following a mission management meeting, NASA will host a news conference to provide an update on launch preparations.
Tuesday, March 31
- 1 p.m.: NASA will hold a prelaunch news conference.
Wednesday, April 1
- 7:45 a.m.: Coverage of tanking operations to load propellant into NASA's (SLS) Space Launch System rocket begins, including views of the rocket and audio from a commentator.
- 12:50 p.m.: NASA+ coverage of launch begins. Coverage will continue on YouTube after Orion's solar array wings deploy in space.
- Approximately two-and-a-half hours after launch, NASA will hold a postlaunch news conference after the SLS rocket's upper stage performs a burn to send Orion and its crew to high Earth orbit.
Mission coverage
NASA's real-time coverage will continue throughout the mission on YouTube. The agency also will provide a separate live stream of views from the Orion spacecraft as bandwidth allows.
The agency will provide daily mission status briefings from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston beginning Thursday, April 2, except for April 6, due to lunar flyby activities.
The crew will participate in live conversations throughout the mission. NASA will provide the exact times of each of these downlink events in the Artemis blog and on the agency's launch events page.
