'A front-row seat to history': NASA's Artemis 2 moonshot could launch as early as Feb. 5

HOUSTON — NASA's ambitious mission to return astronauts to the moon for the first time this century is on track to launch no later than April 2026, but it just might fly sooner if all goes well.

The 10-day-long Artemis 2 mission, which will fly four astronauts around the moon on NASA's Orion spacecraft, could lift off as early as Feb. 5, mission managers said today (Sept. 23) during an event here at the agency's Johnson Space Center (JSC).

"We together have a front-row seat to history: We're returning to the moon after over 50 years," Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA acting deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, told reporters in a press conference today.

If Artemis 2 does lift off on Feb. 5, it will be at night, NASA officials said. The space agency has about five days apiece in February, March and April to launch the flight. The latest possible date is April 26, according to NASA.

NASA will aim to hit the earlier part of that launch window, Hawkins said, but she stressed that crew safety will drive the timeline.

"We want to emphasize that safety is our top priority," she said. "And so, as we work through these operational preparations, as we finish stacking the rocket, we're continuing to assess to make sure that we do things in a safe way."

Artemis 2, the first crewed mission of NASA's Artemis program, will launch to the moon atop the agency's towering Space Launch System megarocket (known as SLS), as the vanguard flight for a crewed U.S. return to the moon. The mission will be commanded by NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, with fellow agency spaceflyer Victor Glover as pilot. NASA's Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen round out the crew as mission specialists.

The mission will fly on a "free-return" trajectory, sending the Artemis 2 astronauts around the moon on a path that ensures their return to Earth without entering lunar orbit, let alone touching down on the surface.

"They're going at least 5,000 nautical miles [9,260 kilometers] past the moon, which is much higher than previous missions have gone," said Jeff Radigan of JSC, the lead Artemis 2 flight director. "So, the moon's going to look a little bit smaller."

Artemis 2 follows the first Artemis test flight: the uncrewed Artemis 1, which launched an Orion spacecraft to lunar orbit in November 2022 and successfully brought it back to Earth about four weeks later. Artemis 2 was initially expected to launch this year, but NASA pushed the mission into 2026 after the Artemis 1 Orion capsule's heat shield charred more severely than expected during its reentry to Earth's atmosphere.

The Artemis 2 team has studied this issue extensively and taken measures to minimize the chances of heat shield problems during reentry on the upcoming mission, said Rick Henfling of JSC, lead Artemis 2 entry flight director.

"We had a number of tests, and they all helped back up this understanding of what was going on in the char," Henfling said of the Artemis 1 heat shield data. "And so the Artemis 2 trajectory that we're going to fly is going to be one that is not going to replicate that temperature environment, which was conducive to that increased gas generation rate."

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA's launch director for Artemis 2, further explained the liquid hydrogen leaks that delayed the Artemis 1 launch (it lifted off on its third try) should also be solved at this point. The launch team has made modifications at the launch pad and adjusted the fueling process to reduce the risk of such leaks, she said.

"We learned an awful lot during Artemis 1," Blackwell-Thompson said. "We learned the relationship between the flow rates, the pressures and how those manifest, or could manifest, into leaks."

Artemis 2's Boeing-built SLS rocket is nearly complete at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida, with its Northrop Grumman-built solid rocket boosters attached, Blackwell-Thompson said. In the coming weeks, the Orion capsule for the flight and its adapter will be added. NASA expects to show off the fully complete Artemis 2 rocket in October.

Blackwell-Thompson and the other NASA officials who spoke today repeatedly stressed that Artemis 2, though crewed, is still a test flight. Thus, the agency will learn a lot from it while working hard to keep the astronauts safe and check off as many mission goals as possible.

"A test flight doesn't have one singular objective; it's got many of them," Radigan said. "To call this mission fully successful, we need to go fly by the moon, bring the crew home safely and welcome them back with open arms."