Artemis 2 was the first crewed flight of the Artemis program run by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The mission was a lunar flyby. It launched on April 1, 2026, splashed down on April 10, 2026, and did not land on the Moon.
Four astronauts flew on the mission: three from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency. They launched on the Space Launch System rocket and rode in the Orion spacecraft. Artemis I had already flown that same rocket and spacecraft around the Moon without a crew. The launch date itself came seven months later than planned.
What Artemis II Was
Artemis II was a crewed lunar flyby and the first Artemis flight to carry astronauts. It did not land on the Moon. NASA’s Artemis II mission page lists the launch on April 1, 2026, and the splashdown on April 10, 2026.
The spacecraft flew past the Moon without entering lunar orbit. No crew member set foot on the surface. The mission name appears in two forms: Artemis II and Artemis 2. Both refer to the same flight.
NASA describes the purpose in one sentence: “The first crewed Artemis flight marks a key step toward long-term return to the Moon and future missions to Mars.” In NASA’s framing, Artemis II is one step in a longer program, and the landings belong to later missions. Exploration Ground Systems at Kennedy Space Center handled processing, launch, and recovery.
The Four Artemis II Astronauts
Four astronauts flew on Artemis II. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch came from NASA. Jeremy Hansen came from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
That split gave the crew three NASA astronauts and one astronaut from a second national space agency. Artemis I carried no one, so these four were the first people to fly on an Artemis mission.
None of the four Artemis II astronauts is on the next crew. On June 9, 2026, NASA named the Artemis III crew: Randy Bresnik, Luca Parmitano, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas.
The SLS Rocket and Orion Spacecraft
Artemis II used two vehicles. The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket lifted the mission off Earth, and the Orion spacecraft carried the crew. SLS is a super heavy-lift rocket.
SLS pairs two kinds of propulsion. Solid rocket boosters derived from the space shuttle sit alongside liquid-fueled engines on a new central core stage. Our SLS rocket explainer covers the rocket in more detail.
Orion is the crew vehicle. NASA lists its systems as life support, navigation and communications, radiation protection, and what NASA calls “the world’s largest heat shield.” Artemis I flew Orion without a crew, so Artemis II was the first flight where all of those systems had astronauts aboard.
Mission Timeline and Duration
Artemis II lasted 9 days, 1 hour, and 32 minutes, according to NASA. The calendar matches that figure: April 1 to April 10 is nine days.
The dates that mattered to the mission are listed below.
- September 2025: the originally planned launch, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report GAO-26-108556.
- April 1, 2026: launch on SLS, carrying the four-person crew in Orion.
- April 10, 2026: splashdown, with recovery handled by Exploration Ground Systems.
- July 2026: GAO publishes the report documenting the seven-month slip.
NASA’s mission page does not publish three details. It does not state the trajectory type, the farthest distance the crew reached from Earth, or specific test results. Any figure for those three items that you find elsewhere does not come from NASA’s mission page, so check it against the NASA Artemis II mission page before relying on it.
What the Flight Proved for Later Artemis Missions
Artemis II showed that SLS and Orion can launch a crew, carry it past the Moon, and bring it back to a splashdown. That is the full extent of what the public mission record supports. Artemis I had already flown the same pair around the Moon. The new element on Artemis II was the four people inside Orion.
NASA has not published specific test results on its mission page. As a result, the public record does not say how individual systems such as the heat shield or life support performed in measured terms. If you need that data, the NASA Artemis II mission page is the place to watch for any update.
The flight’s role in the wider program is clearer. NASA’s stated goal is a “long-term return to the Moon,” and the first crewed landing is now planned for Artemis IV, targeted for early 2028. Artemis II flew in April 2026, so roughly two years separate the first crewed flyby from the first crewed landing target.
Artemis II vs Artemis I
Artemis II and Artemis I used the same rocket and spacecraft. The difference was the crew. The table compares only the details confirmed for both missions.
| Criterion | Artemis I | Artemis II |
|---|---|---|
| Crew | None (uncrewed) | Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen |
| Rocket | SLS | SLS |
| Spacecraft | Orion | Orion |
| Mission profile | Flew around the Moon | Crewed lunar flyby, no lunar orbit, no landing |
| Order in the program | Uncrewed flight before Artemis II | First crewed Artemis flight |
| Main difference | Flew SLS and Orion with no one aboard | Flew the same pair with four astronauts aboard |
For a general reader, the comparison comes down to one question: did people fly? On Artemis I they did not. On Artemis II four did.
Cost and Schedule Context
Artemis II launched seven months late, and GAO tied the delay to the Orion spacecraft. In report GAO-26-108556, published in July 2026, GAO documents the slip from a planned September 2025 launch to April 1, 2026. GAO connects it to a $261 million annual overrun on Orion.
Orion accounted for over half of the annual overruns across NASA’s major projects. It also accounted for nearly 75 percent of their cumulative overruns.
The per-flight hardware cost comes from a separate audit. The NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG), in report IG-22-003, estimated roughly $4.1 billion per SLS and Orion flight stack for the first four Artemis missions. Four flight stacks at $4.1 billion each come to about $16.4 billion. The Artemis program cost explainer sets these figures against the rest of the program.
Artemis III and Artemis IV Plans
Artemis III is the next Artemis flight, and it will not go to the Moon. NASA restructured the program on February 27, 2026. Under the new plan, Artemis III is a crewed rehearsal in low Earth orbit (LEO) targeted for 2027, in which the crew docks with commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin.
The same restructuring moved the first crewed Moon landing to Artemis IV, targeted for early 2028. NASA’s Artemis III mission page carries the current plan for the rehearsal flight. All of these dates are targets, and they can move.
| Mission | Crew | Destination | Lunar landing | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Artemis II | Wiseman, Glover, Koch, Hansen | Lunar flyby | No | April 1 to April 10, 2026 |
| Artemis III | Bresnik, Parmitano, Rubio, Douglas | LEO, docking with commercial landers | No | 2027 (target) |
| Artemis IV | Not yet stated | The Moon | First crewed landing (planned) | Early 2028 (target) |
Artemis II slipped seven months before it flew, so treat the 2027 and 2028 targets as plans that may change. To follow the first crewed landing planned after Artemis 2, read our Artemis IV explainer.