Artemis II: Mission Overviews

The approximately 10-day Artemis II flight test will launch on the agency’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, prove the Orion spacecraft’s life-support systems, and validate the capabilities and techniques needed for humans to live and work in deep space.

The astronauts will launch from NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39B atop the SLS rocket as it generates 8.8 million pounds of thrust, beginning their 600,000 mile journey. Once out of our atmosphere, these star sailors will conduct a targeting demonstration and check the Orion spacecraft’s systems near Earth before they head around the Moon and back to Earth, reentering our atmosphere at 30 times the speed of sound, before gently splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.