This is the official r/space live megathread for NASA's Artemis II mission – the first crewed launch of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft.
For the first time in more than 50 years, humans will travel around the moon to test deep-space life-support systems.
LIVE VIEWING FEEDS:
[OFFICIAL NASA] NASA's Artemis II Live Mission Coverage (Official Broadcast)
[CNN] Live: Inside Missions Control For NASA's Artemis II Launch
[NASASpaceflight] Artemis II Stakeout – NASA's Crewed Mission Around The Moon
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NOTE: This thread will contain links to multiple different live viewing channels. The sub will remain in manual approval mode during today's launch window (and a few hours after it) to limit spam. As such, you are welcome to redirect anything you want to post separately in this time period to the comment section in this megathread.
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MISSION INFO: At 6:24pm EDT (22:24 GMT) on Wednesday, a two-hour window will open for the Artemis II mission to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch window will remain open until April 6 for two hours each day after sunset. The mission can launch only when the moon, orbital paths, weather and Earth’s rotation line up safely.
This is the third launch attempt for Artemis II, after the first attempt was scrubbed due to a liquid hydrogen leak during a practice countdown in early February, and the second attempt was cancelled when engineers discovered a helium flow issue in the rocket’s upper stage in early March
The four-person crew will not land on the moon but rather perform a lunar flyby, looping around the moon’s far side before returning to Earth. At its core, Artemis II is a systems validation mission. NASA will use the flight to test the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems, navigation, communication links and overall performance in deep space with a crew on board – conditions that cannot be fully replicated on Earth. If successful, Artemis II will pave the way for Artemis III, a crewed low Earth orbit mission; then Artemis IV, which aims to land astronauts on the moon; and future missions that could establish a sustained human presence beyond Earth.
by ChiefLeef22
8 Comments
I just want to say that I’m very excited about this.
Can’t wait. Looking forward to some amazing pictures from this mission.
Flying into central Florida this afternoon. Really excited about this!
Storms starting to roll in.
This is so exciting! Can’t wait!
My 5-year-old self wanted to see this more than anything in the world. Every few years, I would always google, watching things go from Constellation to Artemis, Ares to SLS, 2018-landing to 2028-landing. I’m feeling so so so happy and sentimental today, I can’t believe this is finally happening!
This will be a very important test. There will be four astronauts in the Orion capsule for 10 days. About the same usable space as Dragon but this would be twice as long as any free-floating Dragon mission. You’d have to go back to Apollo 17 for similar conditions, but even then, they had the lunar module for extra space to move around in. Maybe have to go further back to even Gemini 7 for that level of capsule-only confinement.
Does anyone know the chances of launch tonight given conditions and that? If all is well, is 22.24 the lift off time? I know it’s a two hour window but assume that’s for contingency if all is well?
Basically I need to watch but also need my beauty sleep!