NASA’s planning assumes that if Artemis 1 launches no later than mid‑2021, there will be no impact to Artemis 2.
The cubesats selected for Artemis 1 include NASA-funded science and technology demonstration missions, payloads from international partners, and competitors in the Cube Quest Challenge.
NASA announced in 2016 that it would fly 13 cubesats on the first SLS mission, originally called Exploration Mission 1 and renamed Artemis 1.
On Artemis 1 and Artemis 2 the cubesats will be mounted on the inside of a stage adapter ring between the SLS upper stage and the Orion spacecraft and will be deployed after Orion separates.
Jim Bridenstine indicated that if Artemis 1 launches no later than mid-2021 there will be no impact to Artemis 2.
A delay of Artemis-1 to June 2021 could affect later launches, including Artemis-3 in 2024 that NASA currently foresees carrying astronauts to the Gateway for transfer to a lunar lander.
A successful timeline for the core stage and green run could support a late 2020 launch date for the first SLS mission, now named Artemis-1.