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NASA has announced a major milestone in its Artemis program. On April 20, 2026, the agency will roll out the largest section of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the crucial launch vehicle for the Artemis III mission, which is set to carry astronauts on a historic lunar journey. This pivotal moment marks a significant leap in NASA's goal to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon, with the mission slated for 2027....The rollout of the rocket’s core stage, set for April 20, 2026, from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, marks the beginning of an exciting phase...

With the Artemis II mission successfully completed NASA has set itself a high bar to prepare Artemis III to fly next year, at least it's a high bar compared to the 3 years between flights 1 and 2. It has to assemble a rocket, decide on the mission and then make sure the other parts of the mission are ready for the flight. Scott Manley examines the logistical hurdles and critical milestones required to keep the Artemis program on schedule. The discussion explores the readiness of hardware, the competition between HLS providers, and the evolving mission plans for future lunar...

Eugene F. Kranz, the legendary NASA flight director who helped guide the Apollo program, says the newest views of the Moon and the Artemis II mission are hitting him on a personal level. In a one-on-one interview with the 13 Action News I-Team, Kranz, now 93 years old, described how the images from the Artemis II crew brought him right back to the era when the U.S. first made lunar history. He compares what NASA can see and do now versus what tools astronauts had during the Apollo area.

A really good “astronaut’s eye view “ of earth reentry. It’s pretty wild, as you would imagine.

Splashdown is scheduled to occur at 5:07 p.m. PDT (8:07 p.m. EDT / 00:07 UTC), live coverage with commentary from Spaceflight Now's Will Robinson-Smith. Live: Artemis 2 astronauts return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific after Moon mission | Spaceflight Now 454K subscribers | 31,373 watching now | Started streaming 2 hours ago

An apparently random occurrence aboard the Orion spacecraft quickly resulted in an “out of this world” ad campaign for the hazelnut cocoa spread Nutella. During a video clip posted by the crew of the Artemis II lunar mission — just moments before they broke the record, set by Apollo 13, for distance traveled from earth — a jar of Nutella floated across the cabin, tumbling end over end as it prominently displayed the label. “A jar of Nutella was seen floating through the Orion spacecraft approximately 4 minutes before the Artemis II crew made history as they passed the Apollo...

Lunar Starship (the Starship Human Landing System, or HLS, for NASA's Artemis program) is in active development but remains several years from its first crewed lunar landing. As of early April 2026, the program has made substantial progress on hardware testing and subsystem qualification, yet key challenges like in-orbit propellant transfer, long-duration flights, and an uncrewed lunar demonstration are still ahead—contributing to schedule delays. Current Status and Major Achievements SpaceX has completed 49 contractual milestones for the HLS contract with NASA (out of many total), with most achieved on or ahead of schedule. These cover: Life support and thermal control...

This is a news clip from Forbes Breaking News showing President Donald Trump on a phone call with the Artemis II crew. The crew—Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen (Canada)—just completed their historic mission orbiting the Moon aboard the Orion spacecraft "Integrity." It's the first crewed lunar orbit since Apollo. Key highlights from the call: Trump congratulates them on breaking distance records, being the first humans to view the Moon's far side up close from space, and inspiring the world. The astronauts describe unforgettable moments: seeing the Moon's cratered far side (no dark...

The toilet on board the Artemis II spacecraft has reportedly broken down again, leaving the four astronauts on board with no working bathroom on their return to Earth. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will reportedly now have to switch to a diaper-like alternative for the remainder of the trip back to Earth. The space agency later confirmed that the toilet was not working as the Artemis flight reached day six in their ten-day mission. NASA has previously said that in the event the space capsule's toilet stopped working, the astronauts would...

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Explanation: Why doesn't Artemis II land on the Moon? The main reason is that Artemis II is primarily a test mission designed to make a future Artemis missions -- which will land humans on the Moon -- better prepared. Similarly, NASA's Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 went right near the Moon as tests before Apollo 11 -- which landed. As the trajectory in the featured animated video shows, Artemis II will loop around both the Earth and the Moon before returning to the Earth about 10 days after launch. The Artemis II mission will take humans outside the Earth's magnetosphere...

A NASA video has sparked a firestorm online, with conspiracy theorists claiming it 'proves' Artemis II is staged. The crew gave a live interview to CNN over the weekend to discuss their journey to the moon while a plush toy named 'Rise' floated around the capsule as a zero-gravity indicator. The video in question, filmed from a television screen by a smartphone, appeared to show unusual visual distortions with fragmented white text, including partial letters such as 'TAN' and 'OW,' flickering across the toy's head and body. And some viewers quickly seized on it as supposed evidence of digital manipulation....

Astronauts on board Artemis II reported a mysterious burning smell coming from the $23 million advanced toilet system which previously malfunctioned after takeoff. “Regarding the smell, I just wanted to make sure you all were tracking the EGS notes of the kind of burning heater smell that was coming from toilet several times,” astronaut Chrisna Koch, who fixed the toilet on Thursday, radioed to mission control on Saturday, Space.com reported.

NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman took this picture of Earth from the Orion spacecraft’s window after completing the translunar injection burn. There are two auroras (top right and bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun. This and another photo of Earth are the first downlinked images from the Artemis II astronauts. See and hear what the astronauts do with our 24/7 feed. SNIP

Just hours after the Artemis II mission successfully launched its historic deep space lunar flyby, the four-person crew experienced a problem with the Orion spacecraft’s high-tech toilet. Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch — the only woman onboard the 10-day mission — first reported the issue to Mission Control not long after Wednesday night’s breathtaking liftoff from Kennedy Space Center. “The toilet fan is reported to be jammed,” NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan said during live mission commentary, according to Space.com. “Now the ground teams are coming up with instructions on how to get into the fan and clear that area...

The first crewed Artemis flight marks a key step toward long‑term return to the Moon and future missions to Mars. Artemis II builds on the success of the uncrewed Artemis I in 2022, and will demonstrate a broad range of capabilities needed on deep space missions. The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew aboard the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft. Orion is developed to be capable of sending astronauts to the Moon and is a crucial step toward eventually sending crews on to Mars. The Orion spacecraft will serve as the exploration...

Artemis II began its historic flyby of the moon Monday in what is the mission’s showstopper event — giving its crew and Earthlings back home their first glimpses ever of parts of the lunar dark side. The capsule began the flyby around 2:45 p.m. ET, and will spend just over six hours arcing around the moon with its windows pointed toward the far side of the lunar surface. All four crew members will become the first people in history to see certain swaths of the far side — since most it remained in shadow when the Apollo missions orbited the...

Artemis II astronauts got a special wake-up message from legendary astronaut Jim Lovell, the late commander for the Apollo 13 mission, which he recorded before he died at age 97 last year. "Hello Artemis II! this is Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell," he says in the message. "Welcome to my old neighborhood. When Frank Borman and Bill Andrews and I orbited the moon on Apollo 8, we got humanity's first up close look at the moon and got a view of the home planet that inspired and united people around the world. I'm proud to pass that torch on to you...

spectacular double rescue in Iran. And the great news of American astronauts once again orbiting the moon. It's great to be an American again. And like the Founders invoking their Creator in America's Founding documents, on Easter Sunday, the American astronauts once again look to God as they sojourn in space. Yesterday, or perhaps today as space travel goes, one of the astronauts, Artemis II mission pilot Victor Glover spoke of God and God's connection to all humanity as he looked to the blue jewel of Earth

ET phone IT! The Artemis II crew’s early tasks were disrupted by an issue with the shuttle’s Microsoft Outlook less than a day after blasting off into Earth’s orbit. Reid Wiseman, the mission’s commander, reported the problem with the email app to the Houston-based mission control just seven hours after the rocket’s historic launch. “I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those are working,” Wiseman could be heard saying over dispatch. “If you want to remote in and check the Optimus and those two Outlooks that would be awesome,” he added. Mission control said...