FAQ

Artemis II is NASA's first crewed mission on the path back to the Moon. It will send four astronauts on a roughly 10-day journey around the Moon and back. They'll be the first humans to travel beyond low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The mission uses NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft.

The crew consists of Commander Reid Wiseman (NASA), Pilot Victor Glover (NASA), Mission Specialist 1 Christina Koch (NASA), and Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency). Victor Glover will be the first person of color and Christina Koch will be the first woman to fly on a lunar trajectory. Jeremy Hansen will be the first Canadian to fly to the Moon.

Artemis II is currently targeting a launch no earlier than April 2026 from Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch window and exact date are subject to change based on vehicle readiness and technical reviews.

Artemis II will travel approximately 685,000 kilometers (425,000 miles) total during the mission. The crew will fly past the Moon at an altitude of roughly 6,400 to 8,900 km (4,000 to 5,500 miles) above the lunar surface before looping back to Earth on a free-return trajectory.

A free-return trajectory is a flight path that uses the Moon's gravity to slingshot the spacecraft back toward Earth without requiring a major engine burn. It's the same approach used by Apollo 13. If anything goes wrong after the Trans-Lunar Injection (TLI) burn, the spacecraft will naturally return to Earth, providing a built-in safety margin.

The mission is planned to last approximately 10 days, from launch to splashdown. The crew will spend about 4 days traveling to the Moon, perform a lunar flyby, and spend about 4 days returning to Earth before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

No. This is an independent fan project built by a space enthusiast. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, or any other government agency. For official mission information, please visit nasa.gov/artemis-ii.

The trajectory shown is based on NASA's published mission profile and planned flight path. Before launch, the tracker shows the planned trajectory and a simulation. During the actual mission, the visualization will follow the planned timeline. For actual real-time telemetry data, refer to NASA's official mission pages.

The Earth-Moon distances and the trajectory shape are proportionally accurate based on NASA's published mission profile. The Orion spacecraft model is a simplified but recognizable representation. Distances and positions are scaled for visualization. The actual Earth-Moon distance of 384,400 km is compressed to fit the scene while maintaining correct proportions.

The tracker is built with Next.js, React Three Fiber (Three.js), and custom GLSL shaders for the Earth and Moon. The procedural Earth features real-time day/night cycles with city lights, atmospheric scattering, and cloud layers, all generated mathematically without any texture images.

Artemis is NASA's program to return humans to the Moon and establish a sustained lunar presence. Named after Apollo's twin sister in Greek mythology, the program aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon. Artemis I (uncrewed) successfully flew in 2022. Artemis II is the first crewed mission, and Artemis III will attempt the first crewed lunar landing since 1972.

Artemis III will be the first crewed lunar landing, using SpaceX's Starship Human Landing System to bring astronauts to the Moon's South Pole. Subsequent missions (Artemis IV and beyond) will begin building the Gateway, a small space station in lunar orbit, and establishing a more permanent human presence on and around the Moon.

While Apollo used expendable rockets and landed near the Moon's equator, Artemis uses the reusable SLS/Orion system and targets the Moon's South Pole, where water ice exists. Artemis also involves international partners (ESA, CSA, JAXA) and commercial partnerships (SpaceX, Blue Origin). The goal isn't just to visit. It's to stay and build infrastructure for eventual Mars missions.

SLS is NASA's super-heavy-lift rocket and the most powerful rocket ever built. Standing 322 feet (98 meters) tall, it produces 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. For Artemis II, the Block 1 configuration can send more than 27 metric tons to the Moon. SLS uses two five-segment solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 engines (the same engines that powered the Space Shuttle).

Orion is NASA's deep-space crew capsule, built by Lockheed Martin with the European Service Module (ESM) provided by the European Space Agency. It's designed to support crew for up to 21 days in space. The capsule features a state-of-the-art heat shield (the largest ever built) that can withstand re-entry temperatures of about 2,760°C (5,000°F) when returning from lunar velocity.