NASA offers an online Artemis II tracker for those who want to follow the four astronauts as they adventure around the moon in the Orion capsule.
Four astronauts are about to go farther from Earth than humans have ever gone before. Follow them as they travel 250,000 miles on NASA’s pioneering Artemis II moon mission.
Luckily, the U.S. Space Agency has an app for that. And a desktop website too.
After a potential launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1, astronauts will pilot the Orion crew capsule on a 10-day journey around the moon and back. The mission, the second in NASA’s multibillion-dollar Artemis program, will pave the way for a moon landing as early as 2028.
Here’s what you need to know about NASA’s Artemis II tracker.
Artemis II Tracker. Track moon missions in real time
NASA’s online tracker, available on both desktop and mobile apps, lets you follow Artemis II astronauts as they adventure to and around the moon aboard the Orion crew capsule.
Officially called the Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW), the tracker allows users to see where the Orion spacecraft is and how fast it’s traveling, as well as its distance from both Earth and the moon in miles, NASA said.
The desktop website version’s interface includes major mission milestones and features for the Moon, including information about Apollo-era landing sites. The mobile version of NASA’s app for smartphones is similar, but adds an augmented reality feature that allows users to move their phone to see where Orion is currently positioned relative to Earth.
Data is collected in real time by Orion’s sensors and transmitted to the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. This information will be constantly updated starting about one minute after liftoff until Orion begins its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere about 10 days later.
What time is the Artemis II rocket launching today?
NASA is working towards the launch of the Artemis II mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, April 1st. The Orion capsule, which will carry astronauts atop NASA’s 322-foot Space Launch System rocket toward the moon, is scheduled to touch the ground during a two-hour launch window that opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.
NASA says there is an 80% chance that weather conditions will be favorable for launch. However, if the launch fails due to bad weather or other factors (such as unforeseen problems with the spacecraft), NASA has other backup dates available, from April 2 to 6, in addition to April 30.
Artemis II launch countdown
Four astronauts orbit the moon on Artemis rocket launch
Under the Artemis program, NASA aims to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo program ended in 1972.
NASA aims to use a series of manned and unmanned missions over the next few years to build a lunar base and establish a permanent foothold at the moon’s south pole. From there, the first humans could head to Mars.
As a 10-day lunar orbit mission, Artemis II will primarily serve as a test flight, with a crew of four testing systems and hardware ahead of a future landing.
In 2027, another astronaut will reach Earth orbit aboard Orion to test docking capabilities with one or both of the commercial lunar landers being developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. The moon landing will then take place in 2028 under Artemis IV.
Introducing the Artemis II crew
The Artemis II crew of four arrived in Florida on March 27 after entering standard preflight quarantine to avoid illness. This is shown below.
- NASA astronaut Reed WisemanThe mission commander, a Baltimore native, last flew to the International Space Station in 2014 on a Russian Soyuz rocket.
- NASA astronaut Victor Glovera pilot from Pomona, California, who flew into space in 2020 on a SpaceX mission to the space station.
- NASA astronaut Christina Kocha mission specialist from Grand Rapids, Michigan, holds several space agency records and flew on the Soyuz ISS mission in 2019.
- Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy HansenAnother mission specialist flying into space for the first time.
Eric Lagatta is a Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact elagatta@usatodayco.com.
