Launch day has arrived for NASA’s Artemis II mission—here’s what to expect

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida — The countdown has begun for NASA's Artemis II mission, a monumental journey to the Moon that promises to redefine human exploration. As the four astronauts prepare for launch, the excitement is palpable. Pilot Victor Glover expressed the intensity of the day ahead, stating, "It is actually a very long day. We wake up about eight hours before launch, and there’s a pretty tight schedule of things to get out there." Glover, along with his crewmates, is set for a meticulously timed nine-day mission that will take them more than 250,000 miles from Earth, further than any human has traveled before. After their flight around the Moon, the astronauts will re-enter Earth's atmosphere at a staggering speed of 25,000 mph (40,000 km/hr), setting another record for human travel. Mission commander Reid Wiseman will sit alongside Glover in the Orion spacecraft’s cockpit, while mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen complete the team. Each astronaut has vital responsibilities as they embark on this unprecedented mission, which marks the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft after two decades of development. The Artemis II mission is poised to launch as early as Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, with a two-hour launch window starting at 6:24 pm EDT (22:24 UTC). Those interested can catch NASA’s live stream of the countdown and launch on YouTube. Notably, the full Moon will grace the sky over the eastern horizon at the spaceport during the launch—a symbolic sight for the Artemis II astronauts, who have been preparing for this mission since their selection three years ago. As the inaugural crew mission of NASA’s Artemis program, Artemis II aims to lay the groundwork for a sustained human presence on the Moon, including a lunar base at the south pole, paving the way for future missions to Mars.