Everything You've Been Googling About NASA's Artemis II Mission, Answered

Unless you've been living under a rock this week, you've probably heard that NASA just sent four astronauts around the Moon for the first time in over 50 years. The Artemis II mission has people looking up at the sky and asking a lot of questions. We rounded up the biggest ones and answered them all in one place.

Is Artemis II Going to Land on the Moon?

No, and that is actually by design. This mission is the dress rehearsal before the main event, confirming that Orion's systems work as designed with a crew on board in real deep-space conditions. The actual Moon landing is planned for Artemis III, which NASA is targeting for 2028.

Why Was Artemis II Delayed?

Three things pushed the launch back: a liquid hydrogen leak found during a February dress rehearsal, a helium flow issue in the upper stage that forced a full rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building, and heat shield damage discovered after the Artemis I flight that took over a year to resolve. The mission finally launched on April 1.