Mastodawn

Daniel Fischer Mar 30

At the top of the hour an #ArtemisII L-2 Countdown Status News Conference at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL3AyQ766vc - according to the timeline https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-releases-artemis-ii-moon-mission-launch-countdown/ the countdown should begin 15 minutes from now; check https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/artemis/ for updates.

NASA's Artemis II L-2 Countdown Status News Conference (March 30, 2026)

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Daniel Fischer Mar 31

At the top of the hour the #ArtemisII L-1 Countdown Status News Conference - the final one before the planned launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PhQJCzhCOw (new on the panel for the first time is launch weather officer Mark Burger).

NASA's Artemis II L-1 Countdown Status News Conference (March 31, 2026)

YouTube

Daniel Fischer 6d ago

A permanent webcast of #ArtemisII has begun at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs and will first cover tanking and run all the way to splashdown (separate webcasts will cover special mission phases like lift-off). Also live updates will be published on the page https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/01/live-artemis-ii-launch-day-updates/ just set up.

NASA's Artemis II Live Mission Coverage (Official Broadcast)

This feed will provide continuous coverage of Artemis II mission activities with live commentary, beginning with tanking of the SLS (Space Launch System) roc...

YouTube

Daniel Fischer 6d ago

Since this one will certainly be archived (not sure about the permanent webcast), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf_UjBMIzNo is the NASA webcast specifically for the #ArtemisII launch. The crew is already in the capsule - this had been their walk-out: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2086875691887758 and https://www.facebook.com/scott.schilke.1/posts/pfbid0261UbknbRbYWXenoR8DgC3GcDDH4RRL6FDgoW13vycnXUz4Tq5oz1yXLbzcYuPjMjl

NASA's Artemis II Crew Launches To The Moon (Official Broadcast)

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What a chaotic launch broadcast for an historic mission ... here is the only lift-off full view, visible merely for a brief fraction of a second. Anyway, Orion and ESM are in Earth orbit now!

The first (NASA) photograpg of the #ArtemisII launch published: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/55182696113/in/album-72177720331487648

The best view from the botched #ArtemisII NASA launch webcast: the separation of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (with the Orion, not visible) from the Core Stage, seen from the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter - scroll down on https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/04/01/artemis-ii-vor-dem-start-maps-vor-dem-perihel/ for a sequence of nine screenshots from the whole ascent.

And now an #ArtemisII post-launch press conference on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrhH05U_Zds

NASA’s Artemis II Postlaunch News Conference (April 1, 2026)

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The best view from the #ArtemisII mission so far came at noon UTC today when a solar-wing-mounted camera broastcast this view of Earth some 70,000 km away next to the ESM engines for a while. The Orion and the ESM are on their way back to perigee now - and around 23:45 UTC the trans-lunar injection burn is expected.

After a successful 5 minutes 55 seconds Translunar Injection Burn the daily #ArtemisII press conference should come at the bottom of the hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Pq35gm4qA

NASA’s Artemis II Daily News Conference (April 2, 2026)

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The first orbital media event with the #ArtemisII crew is happening right now, live on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs

And so #ArtemisII delivers ... the dark side of the Earth last night, illuminated by the full Moon, with a bright atmospheric arc indicating where the Sun is hiding and aurora in several places. While beyond Earth at 5 o'clock you see the zodiacal light and Venus and many stars. A bit noisy but something never imaged before AFAIK - the Apollo era photographic film wasn't up to this. From https://x.com/NASA/status/2040059770237849635 while https://x.com/NASA/status/2040059740848283920 shows a fraction of the Earth's dayside.

By popular demand here is the full-moon-lit night image of Earth from #ArtemisII in a rotated (NW now up) and zoomed-in version, now directly from https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/hello-world/ - the technical data has https://nitter.net/Erdayastronaut/status/2040105622046118282 and there is also a version with much shorter exposure at https://nitter.net/NASA/status/2040114101670523381 and a half-Earth at https://nitter.net/NASA/status/2040114160529179103 while the view with the window frame is at https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e000191

RE: https://social.bund.de/@DLR/116329958392954622

Today's daily #ArtemisII Mission Update briefing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5PLvqX2q8w - in Q&A we learned that contact has been made to only two of the four CubeSats deployed so far, the German one https://mastodon.social/@[email protected]nd.de/116329959429900989 not among them. Anyway, here is a cool timelapse of the deployment as seen in the sky: https://bsky.app/profile/s2a-systems.bsky.social/post/3mimb3zb5gs2i

Daniel Fischer 3d ago

There is now some lunar surface detail visible in #ArtemisII photographs showing the Moon behind the Orion: from the JSC album https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/albums/72177720307234654/with/55186770575 which should also be monitored for new mission images dropping.

Daniel Fischer 3d ago

The #ArtemisII mission is getting to see more and more of the far side of the Moon already, with Mare Orientale already clearly visible in the image https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55186902076/in/album-72177720307234654 at the far left - and the Daily News Conference is beginning on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-KDKBCPrwA (while https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/04/artemis-ii-flight-day-4-deep-space-flying-lunar-flyby-prep/ has a long mission update).

Daniel Fischer

NASA has finally published a detailled simulation of what the #ArtemisII lunar flyby will look like from the Orion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmQ4546iIvI - happy to see that it matches the two simulations (prepared on my request, assuming an April 1st launch) I had shown on March 30th in https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/03/26/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-26-marz-2026/#Mar30 had essentially nailed it. Actual times of key events have recently been added to https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/artemis-2/nasa-sets-coverage-for-artemis-ii-moon-mission/ (under Monday, April 6) - the main question now is how much of this culmination of the mission we will see ... and when. At a press conference Sunday at 22:30 UTC more information is expected.

Simulated Artemis II Lunar Flyby: Orion’s View of the Moon

YouTube

Daniel Fischer 2d ago

The #Moon in a perfectly fitting #easteregg shape in the live stream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RwfNBtepa4 from #ArtemisII right now. Two new updates: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/04/artemis-ii-flight-day-4-crew-completes-manual-piloting-demonstration/ and just in https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/05/artemis-ii-flight-day-5-crew-starts-day-with-suit-demo/

Daniel Fischer 2d ago

The Earth in the #ArtemisII rearview mirror - kind of - today, really small now: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55189687036/. All about the lunar flyby in a press conference at 22:30 UTC at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46uxUxGpjtY - 75 minutes from now. And the window view of Earth just after leaving, with geography identified: https://www.facebook.com/rherrera71/posts/pfbid02NHATBT6ag9U4MxtXhrL9S2ia6ZkhN3FFskGL5AHGeAx7oRctTDxoCF5P8zxdyoRTl

Daniel Fischer 1d ago

More #MareOrientale in this new #ArtemisII #Moon image - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55190158269/in/album-72177720307234654 - than in the first one with a long focal length presented. The lunar flyby webcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-j1uxBmis0 will begin at 17:00 UTC today and the lunar observations run from 18:45 UTC to 1:20 UTC on 7 April - as explained in the press conference tonight we will mostly get images from the exterior cameras with astronaut commentary of what they see; real photographs like this one will be downloaded later during the day and the following ones.

Daniel Fischer 1d ago

The Mare Orientale is moving more and more to the center of the Moon for the #ArtemisII crew, here in the latest image https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55191470911/in/album-72177720307234654 zoomed in on the right,

Daniel Fischer 23h ago

Earth vanishing behind the Moon for the #ArtemisII Orion - only a super-crappy camera caught the scene live. Closest approach to the Moon and largest distance from Earth also just happened. The latter should reappear at about 23:22 UTC and communication regained: https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/04/07/die-orion-von-artemis-ii-ist-jetzt-hinter-dem-mond/ is covering events now ... and hopefully many *good* photographs arriving in the coming days.

Daniel Fischer 21h ago

And here the crappy external camera with the low data rate actually delivered: the #ZodiacalLight pyramid at the beginning of the #SolarEclipse for #ArtemisII - it stayed visible in the live feed for 10+ minutes! Contrary to the NASA commentary this was not the first time such an observation had been made by humans in the vicinity of the Moon - the Apollo 11 crew made it on 19 July 1969: https://www.facebook.com/dan.fischer.393/posts/pfbid02mf6UK3L2j5SgPiQsJk9JVYmo6XvZwDDZ23BYpXwJPDszaSpUYzuinkMyHzh9RF8Rl -> https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2024/07/25/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-25-juli-2024/#Jul26

Daniel Fischer 9h ago

And so the *real* images from the #ArtemisII ride behind the Moon are beginning to come in! Here is the Earth setting at 22:41 UTC yesterday: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55192084847/in/album-72177720307234654

Daniel Fischer 9h ago

Next #ArtemisII lunar close-up picture published: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55193137293/in/album-72177720307234654 with part of the terminator on the far side.

Daniel Fischer 9h ago

Here is earthrise after #ArtemisII has passed behind the Moon as seen from Earth: https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e009280b

Daniel Fischer 8h ago

The #ArtemisII picture I had been waiting for - the dark Moon with a bit of #earthshine on the left in front of the #zodiacalLight going all around: https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e009301 (this is essentially the Apollo 11 image from 1969 - https://www.facebook.com/dan.fischer.393/posts/pfbid02mf6UK3L2j5SgPiQsJk9JVYmo6XvZwDDZ23BYpXwJPDszaSpUYzuinkMyHzh9RF8Rl - again but with the Sun more centered ... and with half a century of photo tech inbetween).

Daniel Fischer 8h ago

Part of the #ZodiacalLight and #earthshine - with Mare Crisium - in yet another #ArtemisII image: https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e009298

Daniel Fischer 8h ago

The end of the #SolarEclipse for #ArtemisII with probably some K #corona streamers becoming visible against the diffuse F corona: https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e009299 - more processing (like with a traditional corona image from a TSE on Earth) will be required.

Daniel Fischer 4h ago

Yes, you can identify several (K) corona streamers in the #ArtemisII image of the end of the solar eclipse - by comparing it with a SOHO LASCO C2 image from 4 hours earlier: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10164990866429808 (the glow behind them and *everything* in https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55193054741/ is zodiacal light, unrelated to the sizzling solar atmosphere). Meanwhile here is yet another NASA album for photographs from the flyby: https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/lunar-flyby/

Daniel Fischer 2h ago

Another view of the #ZodiacalLight behind the #Moon, from a camera on the solar cells. And the daily #ArtemisII press conferences resume now, the first one post-flyby coming up at the bottom of the hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YWATA3d5dU

Andy4Future 1h ago

@cosmos4u this one is remarkable.

Ross of Ottawa 9h ago

@cosmos4u yeah, blocked a handful of accounts sending old pics around as Artemis was still en route.

AkaSci 🛰️21h ago

@cosmos4u
Who you calling crappy, buddy?

I am hanging out here in the cold and the radiation, with no human touch, bringing you non-stop video for 5 days and lots more to come.

I get no respect

Daniel Fischer 2h ago

@AkaSci My apologies to the camera *sensor*! I was just taken aback by the awful optics geometry and sudden loss of image quality compared to the other camera used before - in combination with the low data rate assigned to it. What just appeared on https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/albums/72177720307234654/ fully 'rehabilitates' the cameras. ;-)

Artemis II

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen were announced Monday, April 3 as the four astronauts who will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through Artemis. The crew assignments are as follows: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen.

Flickr