Artemis II Countdown: How and When to Watch the Launch

After multiple delays, rocket repairs, and a restructuring of the program to return to the moon, the Artemis II mission is ready for liftoff. If there are no problems, four astronauts will inaugurate NASA's new lunar campaign on Wednesday, more than 50 years after the Apollo era.

The Artemis II crew will not descend to the moon; that won't happen until Artemis IV. But their capsule will fly 6,000 to 9,000 kilometers over the surface of the hidden side of Earth's satellite, circle it, and make the return trip home. The main objective of the mission is to demonstrate that the space agency has the technological capability to send people to the moon safely and without mishap.

Once this is achieved, NASA will begin preparations for new lunar landings during the following years, which will aim to consolidate the first lunar bases in history and with it, the sustained and sustainable presence of human beings on the satellite.

When and Where Can You Watch the Artemis II Liftoff?

The new launch window opens Wednesday, April 1 at 6:24 pm EDT and will last for two hours. This means that once all the protocol tests are done, liftoff of the Artemis II mission could occur anytime between 6:24 pm and 8:24 pm EDT. There is no exact time, because the trip is cleared based on technical, weather, and space traffic conditions. If something prevents the launch this Wednesday, NASA has five more days to try again.

Monday, April 6, would be the last day of this launch window. If unsuccessful this time, the launch window would be pushed to April 30.

According to NASA, the live broadcast will be available on its YouTube channel. The stream will begin at 7:45 am with coverage of tank operations to load the booster. Meanwhile, at 12:50 pm the official coverage will begin and carry on until liftoff. Two hours after the launch, NASA will hold a press conference.

Mission Details

The astronauts will take off in a NASA SLS rocket and travel inside the Orion capsule, described as a spacecraft about the size of a large van. They will orbit Earth for at least two days to test the onboard instruments. Then they will align the spacecraft to begin its journey to the moon. By the fifth or sixth day of flight, the capsule is expected to enter the moon's sphere of influence, where the satellite's gravity is stronger than Earth's, and dock with its orbit.

When the spacecraft passes “behind” the moon, the most dangerous phase will begin. The crew will be out of contact with Earth for about 50 minutes due to interference from the moon itself. During this crucial moment, the crew must capture images and data from the moon, taking advantage of the far-more-advanced technology they carry than was available during the Apollo era.

After completing the return, the capsule will head home, taking advantage of the Earth-moon gravity field to save fuel. According to NASA estimates, by the 10th day of flight the crew will be close to reaching the planet.

Artemis II has five priorities: It must sustain the crew safely throughout the flight; operate essential systems for a manned lunar campaign, from ground infrastructure to space hardware; retrieve flight data and use it in future missions; activate an effective emergency system in case of a critical scenario; and verify subsystems and validate emerging data.

Secondary Goal: Beat China

As in the Apollo era, the United States is fighting a space competition with another technological power. However, instead of Russia, the rival now is China, which is rapidly advancing its program to put its own taikonauts on the surface of the moon. By way of context, in the next two years alone, the Chinese space agency plans to send two more Chang'e robots, as well as a lunar lander before 2030.

For the current NASA administration, maintaining space leadership is a stated goal. Although the agency operates on a much smaller budget than during the Cold War, geopolitical pressure has pushed its partners, including SpaceX and Blue Origin, to prioritize technologies that will accelerate the US return to the lunar surface.

The first lunar settlement is key to the future of space geopolitics. While the moon's territory "belongs to no one" and is governed under the rules of the Outer Space Treaty, the first arrivals will establish operational safety zones, or perimeters where no one else can approach. The first lunar bases will have the best positions over potential vital resource deposits, located in the permanently dark craters of the South Pole, and no one else will be able to take their position away from them.

What’s Next?

Once the mission is over, NASA will rewrite its road map. Artemis III, once billed as the first lunar landing mission, will now focus on testing critical systems, such as the suits and the transport module, all in low Earth orbit. The first manned landing will be moved to a future mission, probably Artemis IV, still without a firm date, and will have to operate without the Gateway station, whose recent cancellation forces a redesign of the program's logistical architecture.

Mastering lunar descent with new technology is key to the new lunar base construction plan, divided into three phases, dozens of missions, and an investment of close to $10 billion.