NASA has published the daily mission agenda for Artemis II, the agency's first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Orion spacecraft will carry four astronauts—NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen—on a lunar flyby mission lasting approximately 10 days. The crew will reach space about eight minutes after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center.
The Orion spacecraft, powered by the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, will perform a free-return trajectory around the Moon without entering lunar orbit. The mission serves as a critical test of life support systems, navigation, and heat shield performance during high-speed reentry from deep space. Orion's heat shield must withstand temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit when returning from lunar distance at 25,000 mph.
Artemis II currently targets a launch window in November 2024, though the mission has faced multiple delays due to heat shield analysis and other technical reviews. The flight follows the uncrewed Artemis I mission completed in December 2022, which successfully demonstrated the SLS-Orion system's basic capabilities during a 25.5-day mission around the Moon.
This mission represents a crucial stepping stone toward NASA's goal of landing the first woman and next man on the Moon through Artemis III, currently planned for 2026. The successful completion of Artemis II will validate human-rated systems needed for future lunar surface operations and establish the United States' renewed capability for deep space human exploration, competing with China's advancing lunar program.
The mission cost is estimated at $4.1 billion as part of NASA's broader $93 billion Artemis program through 2025, positioning the agency to establish a sustainable lunar presence and eventually support human missions to Mars.