Artemis II Lunar Flyby Amid Moon Mission
NASA launched the Artemis II rocket at 6:35pm EST from pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, April 1.
Astronauts on board:
Commander Reid Wiseman
Pilot Victor Glover
Astronaut Christin a Koch
Astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Canada
President Donald Trump celebrated NASA’s Artemis II mission, which is set to send U.S. astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time in more than five decades.
The president released a statement ahead of the Artemis II mission launch.
“We are WINNING, in Space, on Earth, and everywhere in between - economically, militarily, and now, BEYOND THE STARS. Nobody comes close! America doesn’t just compete, we DOMINATE, and the whole World is watching.
“God bless our incredible Astronauts”
The Artemis program was established during President Donald Trump’s first term in 2017 as part of a broader push to return American astronauts to the moon.
On Monday, April 6, the four astronauts of Artemis II will travel farther from Earth than any humans in history - breaking the record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
They’ll sail around the far side of the Moon, photographing lunar features never before seen by human eyes.
At their closest point, they’ll pass roughly 4,000 miles above the lunar surface.
Highlights include:
1:56 p.m. EDT (1756 UTC): Artemis II crew surpasses the Apollo 13 distance record
2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 UTC): Lunar observation period begins
6:41 p.m. EDT (2241 UTC): Predicted loss of communications as Artemis II heads behind the moon (roughly 40 minutes)
7:00 p.m. EDT (2300 UTC): Artemis II’s closest approach to the Moon
7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 UTC): Artemis II reaches its furthest distance from Earth