Artemis 2 will send four astronauts on a roughly 10 day loop around the moon without touching down, the mission that will test Orion with a crew aboard.
The flight will carry commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and could launch as soon as April 1 according to mission plans.
NASA has said the Artemis 2 flight will confirm all spacecraft systems operate as designed with crew aboard in deep space, and will place life support aboard Orion for the first time to test crewed operations.
The agency made clear that Orion lacks any landing capability, so Artemis 2 was never intended to reach the lunar surface and will instead demonstrate crewed navigation and operational readiness before later landings.
Artemis 1 previously sent an uncrewed Orion to lunar orbit and back in late 2022 on the first flight of the Space Launch System rocket, and NASA plans to use Artemis 2 results to inform later surface missions.
Program Delays, Landers And Heat Shield Issues
NASA has shifted the first crewed lunar landing to a later Artemis mission and now expects boots on the moon no earlier than Artemis 4, currently set for 2028, because the program must mature multiple systems first.
The Human Landing System award process has shaped that timeline, with SpaceX winning a $2.9 billion sole source award in April 2021 and Blue Origin later receiving a $3.4 billion award as a second vendor in May 2023 after congressional direction.
Competitors protested and then litigated the initial procurement, and NASA has cited development challenges with Starship as a factor delaying a crewed landing, a concern voiced by the agency and its Office of Inspector General.
SpaceX test flights in 2025 produced mixed results but two flights were declared full successes, and an internal SpaceX document obtained by Politico indicated company milestones for orbital refueling and an uncrewed lunar landing in 2026 and 2027 respectively toward a September 2028 astronaut landing.
Separately Artemis 1 revealed unexpected ablation on more than 100 areas of Orion's heat shield and other anomalies, the Office of Inspector General reported, prompting NASA to delay Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 to 2026 and 2027 while adjusting reentry trajectory rather than replacing the heat shield.
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy publicly pressed for faster progress and warned he might reopen the Starship landing contract, and new NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said he wants a crewed landing as soon as possible while emphasizing the need for on orbit refueling milestones.
