Artemis II
Completed April 2026 crewed lunar flyby; first humans beyond LEO since Apollo 17.
On 10 April, Artemis II brought four people back from lunar distance, ending the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since 1972. Its Orion capsule now anchors the evidence needed to clear the next lunar flight.
Last refreshed: 22 September 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Why has NASA withheld crew radiation data after three public windows?
Timeline for Artemis II
Mentioned in: Lockheed reuse claim still waits for evidence
Artemis II Moon MissionMentioned in: Artemis III capsule powered up at KSC
Artemis II Moon MissionMentioned in: Third radiation window closes with no data
Artemis II Moon MissionMentioned in: Crew talk; heat shield answer waits
Artemis II Moon MissionMentioned in: Five open Orion items, no fix dates
Artemis II Moon MissionBackground
Artemis II was NASA's ten-day crewed lunar flyby mission, launched on 1 April 2026 and recovered in the Pacific on 10 April. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen flew Orion beyond low Earth orbit and returned on a free-return trajectory.
The mission was the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Orion passed through lunar gravity, exceeded Apollo 13's distance record and carried a multinational CREW that included the first woman, first Black astronaut and first non-American to enter the lunar environment.
Artemis II carries operational as well as symbolic significance. Artemis II provided a crewed test of Orion's lunar-flight, communications, navigation, life-support and re-entry systems, creating the POST-flight record on which later Artemis missions depend.
The heat shield awaits verification
On 10 April, Artemis II flew Orion's revised lofted return profile with CREW and splashed down safely in the Pacific. The flight tested the response to Artemis I heat-shield problems, but it did not replace a post-flight engineering assessment.
By 16 April, Orion was at Kennedy Space Center for a 30-day teardown, while the CREW said the shield would receive an atom-by-atom inspection. NASA had not announced a report date. Artemis II therefore supplies a successful flight result, but not yet the published evidence needed to settle how its shield performed under lunar-return heating.
Its successor faces a narrower role
On 26 February, NASA redesignated Artemis III from a crewed lunar landing to an Earth-orbit docking test, making Artemis II the programme's completed crewed lunar-distance mission before that change.
On 16 April, Artemis III hardware was moving towards Kennedy Space Center while five Orion engineering items remained open without public fix dates. For Artemis II, the consequence is plain: its flight data and POST-mission findings are now part of the evidence base for a successor mission with a reduced objective, rather than a completed handover to a lunar landing attempt.
What happened to Artemis II after splashdown?
Why hasn't NASA released Artemis II radiation data?
Was the Artemis II heat shield OK?
