Race to the Moon · United States
Artemis II (Orion) launched on 1 Apr 2026, 22:35 UTC (1 Apr 2026, 6:35 pm EDT). Artemis II (Orion) is a crewed lunar flyby mission in the Artemis programme by NASA, counted under United States.
Data reviewed against sources as of · All dates UTC unless a local time is shown
Firsts: First crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since 1972; Greatest distance from Earth ever reached by humans
Crew: Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot), Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen (CSA), in the Orion spacecraft named Integrity. SLS put Orion in a high Earth orbit; Orion’s own engine fired the trans-lunar injection. Heat-shield char loss was "significantly reduced": NASA’s post-flight analysis (15 Oct 2026) found "only nine spots of char loss of varying sizes" on the heat shield, "compared to 103 during Artemis I", and performance "in line with engineering predictions". NASA is investigating a urine vent-line issue.
Orion first crewed flight: promised 30 Apr 2023 (announced 16 Sep 2015)
"a commitment baseline of $11.3 billion and an April 2023 launch readiness date" (Sep 2015)
Late: first attempt 1 Apr 2026, 1067 days after the promised date.
Sources: U.S. GAO (GAO-16-620) (read 23 Sep 2026)
Artemis II (Orion) launched on 1 Apr 2026, 22:35 UTC (1 Apr 2026, 6:35 pm EDT).
Artemis II (Orion) is a crewed lunar flyby mission in the Artemis programme by NASA, counted under United States.
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