Reuters. NASA mission managers on Monday (April 1) polled "go" to launch the Artemis II mission's towering, 322-ft (98-m) Space Launch System (SLS) rocket topped with the astronauts' Orion crew capsule as early as 6:24 p.m. EDT (2224 GMT) on Wednesday.
The Artemis II crew of NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen donned their flight suits and arrived at the launchpad ahead of liftoff scheduled as early as 6:24 p.m. EDT (2224 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Artemis II crew sat patiently inside the capsule on Wednesday (April 1) as NASA engineers completed final launch preparations at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
People cried, cheered and waved as Artemis II mission launched on Wednesday (April 1), taking three U.S. astronauts and a Canadian soar for the first crewed lunar voyage in more than half a century.
Students and educators gathered at the University of Toronto on Wednesday (April 1) to watch the launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission, a high‑stakes voyage around the moon that includes a Canadian astronaut.
U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated the "brave astronauts" and NASA on the successful launch of Artemis II on Wednesday (April 1).
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and others held a post-launch news conference in which he acknowledged a a temporary partial loss of communications and said the launch was an opening act for subsequent missions.
