Artemis II is now in Earth orbit following a liftoff from Kennedy Space Center, NASA reported, carrying astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The Space Launch System lifted the 5.75 million pound stack off the pad, with NASA reporting roughly 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff from the twin solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 engines.
Mission audio and NASA updates show the flight passed its planned ascent milestones. The twin solid rocket boosters separated in the first two minutes, the spacecraft adapter fairings jettisoned as the vehicle cleared the denser atmosphere, and core stage main engine cutoff occurred before the core separated from the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. NASA said that transition marked the end of the first major propulsion phase and the start of upper stage operations.
About 18 minutes after launch, Orion completed a critical configuration step when its four solar array wings fully deployed, flight controllers in Houston confirmed. The arrays extend from the European Service Module, give the spacecraft a roughly 63 foot wingspan, and begin supplying electricity for life support, avionics and communications. NASA said the arrays can rotate on two axes to track the Sun as Orion changes attitude.
NASA identified the next major in‑flight milestones as the perigee raise maneuver and an apogee raise burn to raise Orion’s low and high orbital points ahead of translunar operations. The agency scheduled a postlaunch news conference from Kennedy Space Center and said the crew will then begin a proximity operations demonstration to test manual maneuvering relative to the separated interim cryogenic propulsion stage.
Mission Timeline Prelaunch Work And Early Flight Issues
The launch followed hours of planned tanking and hatch work at Launch Complex 39B. NASA’s closeout crew completed hatch closure and left the White Room after suit leak checks and pressure decay tests, and teams transitioned all cryogenic stages to replenish mode as fueling moved through chilldown, slow fill, fast fill and topping phases, according to NASA campaign updates.
Engineers resolved two prelaunch technical items, NASA said. A communications hardware issue affecting the Eastern Range’s flight termination system was fixed and verified, and a higher than expected temperature reading on a launch abort system battery controller was judged likely to be an instrumentation fault and not to affect the launch.
During the first hour of flight NASA reported a temporary communications anomaly during a planned satellite handover, which left mission control able to send messages that the crew heard while controllers on the ground could not hear the crew’s replies for a period. NASA officials said communications were restored and that vehicle telemetry and operations continued. Live mission coverage will continue on NASA’s channels as the crew tests Orion systems during the initial Earth orbits and prepares for translunar injection burns on the multi‑day trajectory that will carry them on a free‑return flyby of the Moon.
