Artemis Mission Tracker

Artemis II was NASA's first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972 -- a gap of over 53 years. It launched on 1 Apr 2026 22:35 UTC carrying four astronauts (Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen) aboard the Orion spacecraft atop an SLS Block 1 rocket. The crew flew a free-return trajectory around the Moon, reaching a maximum distance of 406770 km from Earth, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on 11 Apr 2026 00:07 UTC after a mission lasting 9d 1h.

The Artemis II crew was Commander Reid Wiseman (NASA, US Navy Captain, veteran of a 165-day ISS mission), Pilot Victor Glover (NASA, US Navy Captain, the first Black astronaut to fly to the Moon), Mission Specialist Christina Koch (NASA, who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 328 days on the ISS), and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency, a former CF-18 fighter pilot and the first Canadian to fly to the Moon). Together they were the first humans to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes since Apollo 17.

A free-return trajectory is a flight path where the spacecraft uses a single engine burn (Trans-Lunar Injection) to head toward the Moon, then relies entirely on gravity for the rest of the trip. The Moon's gravity slings the spacecraft around and redirects it back toward Earth. No additional engine burns are needed to return home, making it the safest trajectory for a crewed mission -- if the main engine had failed at any point after TLI, the crew would still have returned to Earth.

Artemis I was an uncrewed test flight that spent 25 days in a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon, reaching 432,210 km from Earth. Artemis II carried a crew of four on a shorter free-return trajectory (about 10 days) that looped behind the Moon without entering lunar orbit. Artemis II validated life support, crew interfaces, manual piloting of Orion, and all the systems needed to keep humans alive in deep space -- capabilities that could not be tested without astronauts on board.

Artemis II lasted 9d 1h, from launch on 1 Apr 2026 22:35 UTC to splashdown on 11 Apr 2026 00:07 UTC. The crew spent roughly five days on the outbound leg, flew behind the Moon at an altitude of about 10,000 km above the lunar surface, then returned to Earth over approximately four days. Maximum distance from Earth was 406770 km.

Orion used a skip re-entry technique: the capsule dipped into the upper atmosphere to shed speed, then bounced back up briefly before descending for final entry. This gave the crew more control over where they landed and spread the deceleration forces over a longer period compared to a direct plunge. The heat shield endured temperatures of around 2,800 degrees Celsius as the capsule decelerated from roughly 40,000 km/h to splashdown speed. During the hottest phase, a sheath of plasma blocked all radio communication for several minutes -- the communications blackout -- before parachute deployment and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Position data comes from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Horizons system, which provides high-precision ephemeris data for solar system objects and spacecraft. During active missions, the tracker polled Horizons every 60 seconds for the latest state vector (position and velocity in 3D space) and interpolated smoothly between updates on screen. When Horizons data ran out near the end of a mission -- as JPL's predicted trajectory expired -- the tracker extrapolated from the last known velocity, though this became less accurate as atmospheric drag took effect during re-entry.

The tracker monitored NASA's official Artemis blog for mission updates. An AI system analysed each blog post to extract timeline changes -- adjustments to splashdown time, newly announced manoeuvres, crew activities, and milestone completions. These were automatically merged into the mission itinerary. Splashdown detection used a combination of the scheduled time, distance from Earth, and NASA's Deep Space Network signal status. When all indicators aligned, the tracker transitioned from active tracking to mission complete.

The DSN section showed live data from NASA's Deep Space Network -- the global array of radio antennas that communicates with spacecraft beyond Earth orbit. The tracker pulled the public DSN feed every few seconds to display which dish was talking to Orion, the signal strength, downlink data rate, and whether the link was active. During re-entry, DSN signal is lost for several minutes as plasma surrounds the capsule (communications blackout), and the tracker reflected this in real time.

Yes. Select any completed mission from the dropdown menu to load its full trajectory. Use the timeline scrubber to replay the mission at 12x, 24x, or 60x speed and watch how the spacecraft travelled between Earth and the Moon. You can also use keyboard arrows or scroll the timeline bar to step through specific moments.