Artemis II Lunar Mission Profile (NASA Dates are for Future Planning).

We are starting to shut things down now here at Socotra House. History is happening at unimaginable speed. There is history flying above us at around 35,000 miles an hour. You can see the reason for our post-Easter confusion with the animated close-by lunar pass by the Artemis II mission this afternoon. We will post the more detailed mission profile graphic at the end of this somewhat abbreviated but historic moment in human history.

The animation is better when it is actually moving, of course, so Rocket recommends you just google “Artemis II” and see just how mind boggling this incredible adventure is. The crew will take their spacecraft behind the moon for a few hours this afternoon and then the records established some half-century ago by Apollo 13 will start to fall. The first of them will be the mark for the furthest distance Human Beings have traveled from Planet Earth.

If you are keeping track, this is the Official crew portrait for Artemis II, clockwise from left: NASA Astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen, NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman. PHOTOGRAPHER: Josh Valcarcel. Unlike the heroes who placed themselves atop the most powerful rocket motors ever created, Josh is staying in Houston.

The Artemis II mission’s plan was a bold one. The new Space Launch System- SLS- is being used- being used today-to send four astronauts in the first crewed Orion spacecraft to perform a lunar fly-by. They will use the Block 1 variant of the SLS to accomplish a multi-trans-lunar injection (MTLI) profile involving multiple departure burns, and a free-return trajectory from the Moon.

Today’s records: first Earth-Rise and Set observed in person in a half century. Furthest distance from Earth ever traveled by any of species who calls the Earth home. Ever. They say the Moon is about 3.1 billion years old, so not a bad record to break, you know?

The Orion spacecraft will fly around the Moon with a closest approach of about 4,047 miles from the far-side lunar surface. Or to keep things in perspective, about twice the distance on I-70 from Manhattan to Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Artemis II will log the furthest distance from Earth as 252,757 miles, surpassing the Apollo 13 record of 248,655 miles distant as the farthest human crewed mission from Earth.

The outbound journey and lunar fly-by are expected to take about four days, during which the crew will monitor spacecraft systems and gather data on the effects of Deep Space travel. They plan to perform trajectory correction burns as needed during the fly-by, then Orion will use the Moon’s gravity to perform a a neat sling-shot back safely to Earth. NASA anticipates performing further trajectory correction burns during the four-day return flight to ensure accurate Earth re-entry to the Pacific off the coast of California.

The Navy says it will be waiting out there and performing a part of an interesting international rescue theme with the conflict over Iran and rescue of both crewmen from the F-15E lost over Iran this holiday weekend. No warfighters or astronauts will be left behind.

More records will be set when Orion re-enters Earth’s atmosphere at about 25,000 miles per hour, the fastest crewed reentry ever attempted. There are complications, of course. On the first Artemis SLS mission, heat shield erosion was observed with potentially fatal results from stepping out of a vehicle moving that fast on I-70.

Mission managers eliminated the skip reentry in favor of a steeper entry profile. Considering the launch window was on the 1st of April, we are hoping the plumbing stays operational and all mission profiles will result in success.

We are less than three hours from the Artemis II passage behind the Moon, and we intend to be fully prepared and well lubricated when the passage starts. Rocket put Splash in charge of that portfolio.

This will be one of humanity’s great adventures with records set and falling all across Deep Space from a species that intends to travel light years across the Cosmos.

It seems like just yesterday the heroes of the Apollo adventures were landing on the lunar surface in one small step for a human foot in boot. And a giant leap for Humankind.

America returns to the Moon this afternoon in another remarkable journey for us all. God bless the crew, and God speed their safe return to this pleasant planet with at least three new world records to append to their names! To have lived in this time in this nation is something quite extraordinary. And to think, our grandchildren may take a ride on a rocket to the Red Planet!

Copyright 2026 Vic Socotra
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