The Artemis II countdown is progressing steadily toward liftoff around 6:24 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, April 1.
Artemis II will be the first crewed mission to the vicinity of the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Weather is 80% favorable.
Also, see thread from February on the preparations and buildup to tomorrow's historical event.
https://fosstodon.org/@AkaSci/115890452527784512
1/n
A reminder that the 10-day Artemis II mission will carry NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a free-return trajectory around the Moon and back to Earth. No moon-landing on this mission; that will happen with Artemis IV, hopefully in 2028.
Webcast of NASA's Artemis II crew launch starts at 12:50 p.m. EDT (16:50 UTC).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf_UjBMIzNo
3/n
Artemis II Press Kit - https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-ii-press-kit/
NASA website with links to lots of resources for Artemis II - https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-ii-media-resources/
Go #Artemis2
🤞
4/n
Live coverage of Artemis II mission with commentary and views of the SLS+Orion rocket at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This feed will provide continuous coverage of Artemis II mission activities with live commentary, beginning with tanking of the SLS (Space Launch System) roc...
Detailed schedule of events for today and progress reports for the Artemis II mission at https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/01/live-artemis-ii-launch-day-updates/
9:25 EDT: The Artemis II launch team has begun the liquid hydrogen chilldown for the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, or SLS (Space Launch System) rocket upper stage.
The 4 astronauts got a scheduled wake-up call at 9:25 a.m. EDT, marking the start of their final preparations for the historic Artemis II mission around the Moon.
6/n
Artemis II countdown proceeding smoothly.
Liquid Hydrogen tanks in the core and interim cryogenic propulsion stage are at 100% level.
The interim cryogenic propulsion stage liquid hydrogen tank was transitioned to replenish mode. This phase ensures the tank remains at flight-ready levels all the way to launch.
Written updates at https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/01/live-artemis-ii-launch-day-updates/
7/n
The Artemis II mission is similar to the Apollo 8 mission in Dec 1968.
The 8-day Apollo 8 mission carried 3 astronauts for a trip around the moon without landing. It orbited the moon 10 times at ~185 km altitude, while the Artemis II Orion spacecraft will just swing around once around the moon with a lowest altitude of 10,427 km.
Apollo 8 was followed by 2 more crewed missions, one to lunar orbit, before the historic landing in July 1969.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19760005868/downloads/19760005868.pdf
8/n
The card game before the launch, a tradition going back to the Gemini days.
They say it helps relax the astronauts but really it is about superstitions and warding off bad luck.
The NASA Artemis blog states - "NASA crews play cards until the commander loses. It is hoped that by losing, the commander burns off all his or her bad luck, thereby clearing the mission for only good luck."
There are many such rituals in the space community. See https://www.thespacereview.com/article/1137/1
9/n
Artemis II hiccup around 5 p.m. EDT, as an issue popped up with ground hardware that communicates with the flight termination system. The flight termination system allows engineers on the ground to send a signal to destruct the rocket if it were to veer off course during ascent, to protect public safety.
Issue resolved quickly.
Launch abort system hatch now closed.
Countdown continues.
⌛ 🤞
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/01/live-artemis-ii-launch-day-updates/
10/n
Battery temperature issue with the Artemis II Launch Abort System's attitude controller motor being reported on social media.
NASA posted that It is believed to be an instrumentation issue, not a battery issue, and will not affect today’s launch.
11/n
We have liftoff.
Go #Artemis2.
👍
More pics from today at https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/albums/72177720331487648/with/55182696113/
12/n
Artemis II Orion is currently at 2,060 km altitude over the Indian Ocean on the night side of Earth, traveling East. Will soon fly over Australia.
Communicating with mission control via a NASA TDRS satellite.
https://www.n2yo.com/?s=99999&live=1
13/n
Artemis II telemetry on display on the continuous webcast at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs
15/n
Artemis II is now also communicating via the NASA DSN site in Madrid.
Typically, DSN is used for deep space comms, but this seems to be a an experiment to use it for near-earth spacecraft.
Artemis II Proximity Operations Demo coming up.
It 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.
Orion will perform an automated backflip to turn around and face a 2-ft target on the ICPS. The crew will use hand controllers and display system to make very small movements to test Orion's maneuverability.
Artemis II Orion has been climbing to high earth orbit over the past 2 hours thanks to the apogee raising burn at T+01:47:57. It is currently over 38,000 km from earth, higher than geo-sync orbit and will continue climbing for several more hours.
It's ground track appears to have reversed direction, now going east to west, as earth is moving west to east at a relatively higher angular speed.
AkaSci 🛰️
