The Artemis II mission was originally scheduled to launch in March of 2026, but due to a liquid hydrogen leak and a loose pressurized hatch the launch was delayed to April. However, on Apr. 1, 2026, the Artemis II rocket took off at 6:35 pm at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket began its ascent without an issue, and the four astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen began their 10-day journey around to the dark side of the moon and back.
In Jennifer M. Dooren’s report, “NASA Welcomes Record-Setting Artemis II Moonfarers Back to Earth,” the goal of the Artemis two mission was for the four astronauts to stress test the Orion spacecraft andbring humanity back to the moon after 50 years. In the end, these four astronauts traveled a total of 252,756 miles away from Earth, the farthest distance any human has traveled. After their 10–day journey, these four astronauts will have traveled a total of 694,481 miles. On their journey, some issues did present themselves to the crew. According to Joseph Zakrzewski in his post, “Artemis II Flight Update: Crew and Ground Teams Successfully Troubleshoot Orion’s Toilet,” two major issues occurred during the Artemis II flight. The first was a blinking fault light and issues with the Orion spacecraft’s toilet. The crew in their video call with HQ noted the burning smell from the toilet. Both issues were resolved through troubleshooting with mission control. Aside from these issues, all life support systems were green and the Orion spacecraft fulfilled all its other requirements for sustaining humans in deep space (Dooren).
During Artemis II flight to the moon and back, the crew onboard were able to take over 7,000 images. These images include shots of the Earth, the lunar surface, as well as solar eclipse shots.
On April 10, the Orion spacecraft returned to Earth and the crew began the process of re-entry. On their descent, the four astronauts inside the capsule traveled 25,000 miles per hour towards the Pacific Ocean, where they safely splashed down in the Pacific at 5:07 pm, off the coast of San Diego.
The Artemis II crew may not have landed on the moon, but their success here paves the way for the Artemis III mission to bring us back to the moon surface.
