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Artemis II Mission 2026
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But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the
control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football
field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat
and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision
better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control,
communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then
return it safely to Earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour,
causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun — almost as hot as it is here today — and
do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out — then we must be bold.
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I must admit, I was excited. Many of us were. When I was born, the Apollo program had already come to
an end and I am not exactly a youngling any more, which tells me how long ago in the past this
achievement had happened. My parents witnessed Apollo 11 in awe, watched and listened to the unfolding
drama with Apollo 13 less than a year later and when I was born another couple of years later, all
was over. The maybe greatest adventure of the human race.
Artemis 2 means a lot of **first ever** moments. It is the first time, a person who is not a *United States of
America* citizen, will leave Earth's orbit. So far, only astronauts from the USA have done this. This
mission will also be the first time, a woman will leave Earth's orbit and the first time, a person of
color will reach the Moon.
Image Gallery
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Most of these images are Copyright © by NASA and. Credits and photographer (when available) are mentioned
for each photo.
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.. tab-item:: SLS
.. thumbnail:: ../media/SLS_liftoff.jpg
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:title: On this beautiful day, April 1, 2026, at 6:35 p.m. EDT, the powerful SLS takes Artemis 2 towards the Moon.
© Bill Ingalls/NASA
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.. thumbnail:: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/55182992165-bcbb710703-o.jpg
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:title: Another view, taken from further away, a few seconds into the launch. © Keegan Barber/NASA
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:group: sls
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.. thumbnail:: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/55182789108-f13e3eb9ec-o.jpg
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:title: A more detailed view of the launch sequence. © Joel Kowsky/NASA
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.. thumbnail:: ../media/launch_escape.jpg
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:title: An interesting detail showing the
Emergency Egress System in action during the launch. © Joel Kowsky/NASA
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This is a set of baskets or cars, similar to what is used on some cable cars and ski resort lifts. In
case of a catastrophic emergency during liftoff, the crew has a few seconds to board them and escape.
These cars are about the size of an ordinary SUV vehicle and provide enough room for both the
astronauts and other personell. The utilize a zipline-like system to travel down at high speed in
order to quickly evacuate the zone of highest danger.
.. thumbnail:: ../media/launch_opposite.jpg
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:title: Launch picture taken from the opposite site of Launch Complex 39B. © NASA/Joel Kowsky
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.. thumbnail:: ../media/sls_trail.jpg
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:title: The trail of the powerful SLS rocket engines stays visible for a long time after the start.
It consists mostly of water vapor, so it's more like a giant artificial cloud. Long time
exposure. © Keegan Barber/NASA
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.. tab-item:: Moon
.. thumbnail:: ../media/moon_with_corona.jpg
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:title: The Moon eclipses the Sun and makes the Sun's outer atmosphere visible like it has been
seen on few pictures before (© NASA)
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:group: moon
.. tab-item:: Others
.. thumbnail:: ../media/earth.jpg
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:title: The Earth, our beautiful planet. Carl Sagan once coined it as pale blue dot on a picture
taken by Voyager 1 from magnitudes further away. Two auroras are clearly visible in the lower left
and upper right quadrant. The huge brown land mass is northern Africa and you can also see the
Iberian peninsula and the strait of Gibraltar, both in the lower left quadrant.
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.. thumbnail:: ../media/milky_way.jpg
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:title: The Milky Way, picture taken on April, 7th on return flight. (© NASA)
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.. tab-item:: Landing
.. thumbnail:: ../media/landing.jpg
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:title: The Orion spacecraft performs a textbook landing off the coast of California (© Bill Ingalls/NASA)
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.. thumbnail:: ../media/after_landing.jpg
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:title: The Orion spacecraft after perfect splashdown off the coast of California (© Joel Kowsky/NASA)
:show_caption: true
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:group: other