History was made this week when Artemis II lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket roared to life at 18:35 local time on the 1st of April with four on board the spacecraft capsule Orion: three NASA astronauts from the US, and one CSA astronaut from Canada.

This is the crew of the Artemis II test flight.

Getting into the Orion capsule isn’t like getting into a cockpit and it isn’t even like getting into the ISS. It’s a grueling, precise process. Artemis required a dedicated Closeout Crew of five people acting like a specialized pit crew just to get the astronauts situated.

For four straight hours before launch, this team wrestled with complex five-point flight harnesses, hooked up meticulous life support connections, and wrangled an incredible pneumatic hatch that requires heavy ground support equipment just to force shut. Even a single stray hair caught in the hatch seals could have scrubbed the entire launch.

And then the spacecraft took off! From NASA’s launch day updates:

NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, with the Orion spacecraft atop carrying NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT to begin its journey to deep space.

The twin solid rocket boosters ignited first, delivering more than 75% of the thrust needed to lift the 5.75-million-pound rocket off the pad. Their combined power, along with the four RS-25 engines already at full thrust, generated an incredible 8.8 million pounds of force at liftoff. As the rocket rose, the umbilicals – which provided power, fuel, and data connections during prelaunch – disconnected and retracted into protective housings. This ensured the vehicle is free from ground systems and fully autonomous for flight.

If you missed the actual launch, you can still watch it here:

CNN described the crew as sounding shocked that the mission actually launched, quoting the Artemis II Pilot Victor Glover:

“We like to say that we’re prepared without having an expectation — but, in the back of your mind, you kind of hope you launch. And then when we got really close, it was like, ‘Wait, we’re getting ready to go to space?’ It was a ride where you’re trying to be professional, but the kid inside of you wants to break out and just hoot and holler.”

Once the Space Launch System rocket’s main engines cut off, Orion and the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) separated from the rest of rocket. The ICPS engine then fired to raise the perigee, or lowest point of a spacecraft’s orbit, to a safe altitude of 100 miles above Earth.

The crew lost two-way communications with ground after they reached orbit, “due to a ground configuration issue involving the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite system.”

Niki Grayson was watching the live YouTube stream of the capsule when she heard a trouble-shooting issue. One of the astronauts could be heard saying: “I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working.”

right now the astronauts are calling houston because the computer on the spaceship is running two instances of microsoft outlook and they can't figure out why. nasa is about to remote into the computer

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— niki grayson (@nikigrayson.com) 2 April 2026 at 09:06

About an hour after the perigee raise burn, the apogee raise burn kicked in, raising the spacecraft into a high-Earth orbit.

The crew then had less than 24 hours to do a thorough checkout of Orion’s systems before committing to fly to the Moon.

Apogee Raise Burn Complete, Crew Looks Ahead to Proximity Operations:

The Artemis II crew will now begin preparations for the proximity operations demonstration. This demonstration will test the Orion spacecraft’s ability to manually maneuver relative to another spacecraft, the ICPS, after separation, using its onboard navigation sensors and reaction control thrusters. Before the demonstration, Orion will have planned communications handover from NASA’s Near Space Network to the Deep Space Network. These two networks work in tandem to support Orion from the launch pad, around the Moon, and back to Earth.

Day 1 in the capsule also came with a very unglamorous twist: after launch, a blinking fault light forced the crew to troubleshoot Orion’s high-tech toilet. ABC News reports that Mission Specialist Christina Koch addressed the issue:

“I’m proud to call myself the space plumber,” Koch said. “I like to say that it is probably the most important piece of equipment on board.”

NASA released a fun infographic with more details of the food onboard the Orion.

On a typical mission day—excluding launch and reentry—astronauts have scheduled time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each astronaut is allotted two flavored beverages per day, which may include coffee. Beverage options are limited due to upmass constraints, which restrict how much food and drink can be carried onboard.

Fresh foods will not be flying on Artemis II as Orion does not have refrigeration nor the late load capability required for fresh foods. Shelf-stable foods help manage food safety and quality throughout the intended shelf life in a compact, self-contained spacecraft, while also reducing the risk of crumbs or particulates in microgravity.

The Translunar Injection (TLI) burn on Day 2 was the moment that the previous burns had been building towards. At 19:49 EDT on Thursday, after the mission management team polled “Go,” Orion’s main engine fired for five minutes and fifty seconds. At that point, the crew were no longer orbiting Earth. The engine delivers up to 6,000 pounds of thrust (enough to accelerate a car from zero to 60 mph in 2.7 seconds), burning through roughly 1,000 pounds of fuel to push the 58,000-pound spacecraft out of Earth orbit entirely.

NASA’s Artemis II Mission Leaves Earth Orbit for Flight around Moon:

After reaching space, Orion deployed its four solar array wings, enabling the spacecraft to receive energy from the Sun, while the crew and engineers on the ground immediately began transitioning the spacecraft from launch to flight operations to start checking out key
systems.

After the successful translunar injection burn, the Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman took two photographs of the planet Earth, the first downlinked images from the astronauts.

I was also interested to read about the crew’s first workout in deep space. The capsule includes a flywheel exercise device: a cable-based system the size of a carry-on suitcase that supports everything from rowing to squats to deadlifts, with loads up to 400 pounds.

NASA have released the full details of the 10-day agenda. Today is Day 3, and the crew are expected to perform their first outbound trajectory correction burn. They will also test Orion’s medical kit and practice CPR procedures in microgravity. Then tomorrow is the first lunar flyby, which will hopefully include lots of great photos!

On Day 5 they will enter the lunar sphere of influence and on Day 6 they will (we hope!) break the Apollo 13 record for the furthest humans have ever travelled from Earth (over 248,655 miles). They will swing ’round to the far side of the Moon, during which time they will lose communication with Earth.

We’ll get them back on Day 7, when it’s time to head home. But it’s not all easy travel. On Day 8, they’ll test the spacecraft’s ability to act as a radiation shelter in the event of a sudden solar flare. Day 9 includes checking all of the waste collection systems and testing the compression suits ready for their return to the Earth’s gravity. The mission finale is on Day 10, when they will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at 3,000°F/1,649°C. They’ll need to slow from 300 to 17 mph ( from 483 to 27 km/h) before they plunge into the Pacific Ocean.

I’ll be spending the next week watching the live-stream mission coverage with live commentary from NASA on YouTube:

There are 50,000 people watching right now. Come join us!