Artemis II will test deep-space life support, communications, Orion's heat shield, and crew operations in the cislunar environment.
NASA pushed back Artemis II's earliest launch window to February 8 due to freezing weather at Cape Canaveral.
If Artemis II succeeds in early 2026, the United States will have reestablished human lunar-class operations years before China flies its first crewed lunar mission.
Flight controllers will operate the Near Space Network and the Deep Space Network in a tightly coordinated fashion throughout Artemis II.
NASA's Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston will track the Space Launch System rocket, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, and the Orion spacecraft during Artemis II.
For Artemis II, data from Orion will be compressed after it reaches Earth with priority given to crew communications and mission-critical telemetry while images and video are transmitted at reduced quality.
Artemis II marks the first crewed deep-space mission since 1972.
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen are waiting in quarantine in Houston for Artemis II.
NASA will fly the Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O) onboard Orion to test high-bandwidth laser links with real mission data from the crewed flight.
Artemis II is a free-return, 10-day mission that will loop around the lunar far side and return to Earth without landing on the Moon.
NASA is working toward potential launch windows for Artemis II and Crew-12 in February and will decide on the best launch opportunity for each mission closer to flight.
The first launch window for Artemis II also opens in February.
Sky Perfect JSAT is the only Asian commercial company selected to serve as a ground station to receive Orion signals for Artemis II.
The crewed lunar flyby mission Artemis II is scheduled for launch in early February 2026.
Sky Perfect JSAT will use its ground-station facilities for lunar exploration for the first time during Artemis II.
The Artemis II flight will confirm the integrated performance of the SLS rocket, the Orion spacecraft, and associated systems and hardware under operational conditions.
NASA has identified five possible launch dates for Artemis II in February: February 6–8 and February 10–11.
Artemis II will be the first mission to send humans into deep space in more than half a century.
The quarantine period for the Artemis II crew is part of NASA's Health Stabilization Program.
The Artemis II crew will begin quarantine in Houston and, if tests and activities progress toward a possible launch next month, will fly to Kennedy Space Center in Florida six days before launch.