Artemis II astronauts set to arrive to KSC today ahead of next week's launch

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Mar 27, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

ORLANDO, Fla. — Before the four astronauts of the Artemis II mission travel farther from Earth than any human ever has, they first have to get to the launch site.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Glover are set to arrive from Houston today at Kennedy Space Center as they target a launch as early as Wednesday evening.

The quartet have been in quarantine since March 18 and will be arriving to the former Space Shuttle Landing Facility around 2:30 p.m.

Their arrival will be streamed on the KSC YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@NASAKennedy.

Artemis II is the first crewed mission of the nation’s moon-to-Mars program following the uncrewed Artemis I flight of 2022. The astronauts have planned a 10-day mission that will fly by, but not land on, the moon to prove the Orion spacecraft’s safety.

The flight plan calls for Orion to remain close to Earth for one day before heading to the moon. It will fly by the moon on the sixth day of the mission, coming within 4,000 to 6,000 miles of the surface.

This is the same day that the crew could surpass the record set in 1970 for farthest distance from the Earth ever traveled by humans. Depending on the exact launch day and time, Orion could carry them farther than 248,655 miles away, which was the distance from Earth the Apollo 13 crew flew during their problematic flight.

The crew would then spend three days on the return flight, with a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

They will finish out their prelaunch quarantine at KSC’s astronaut quarters prepping for the first of six launch opportunities through April 6. Liftoff for the Wednesday chance is at 6:24 p.m. with Thursday, April 2’s backup at 7:22 p.m., Friday, April 3’s at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 4’s at 8:53 p.m., Sunday, April 5’s at 9:40 p.m. and Monday, April 6’s at 10:36 p.m. If NASA can’t make any of those options, the next launch window opens on April 30.

Orion sits atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket at KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B. The rocket and spacecraft returned to the launch pad on March 20 after having missed out on launch opportunities in February and March that required it to be rolled back for fixes at the Vehicle Assembly Building.

With those in place, teams have been prepping it at the pad for the April window.

“In the days leading up to launch, technicians will conduct pad-specific engineering tests for ordnance connectivity on the flight termination system, radio frequency testing for the core stage and Orion spacecraft and complete final closeouts of the rocket and spacecraft before getting into launch countdown,” according to a NASA website update.

---------