Artemis 2
Artemis 2 (officially Artemis II) is the second scheduled mission of NASA's Artemis program and the first scheduled crewed mission of NASA's Orion spacecraft, currently planned to be launched by the Space Launch System (SLS) no earlier than September 2025. Four astronauts are to perform a flyby of the Moon and return to Earth, being the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The mission is also planned to be the first crewed launch from Launch Complex 39B of the Kennedy Space Center since STS-116 in 2006.
Summary of the Artemis 2 mission plan | |
| Names | Artemis 2 Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Crewed lunar flyby |
| Operator | NASA |
| Mission duration | 10 days (planned) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Orion CM-003 |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 4 |
| Members | Reid Wiseman Victor Glover Christina Koch Jeremy Hansen |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | September 2025 (planned) |
| Rocket | SLS Block 1 |
| Launch site | Kennedy Space Center, LC-39B |
| Contractor | NASA |
| End of mission | |
| Recovered by | U.S. Navy (San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock) |
| Landing site | Pacific Ocean (planned) |
| Flyby of Moon | |
| Distance | 6,400 mi (10,300 km) (planned) |
Official Crew Portrait (Clockwise from left) Koch, Glover, Hansen, Wiseman | |
Originally designated Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2), the mission was intended to collect samples from a captured asteroid in lunar orbit by the now-canceled robotic Asteroid Redirect Mission; it was renamed after the introduction of the Artemis program.