Artemis II: A Journey Around the Moon

Apr 4, 2026 6:12 AM

Oktay74tn

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Artemis II: A Journey Around the Moon
Oktay Yürük aka Oktay74tn, science and tech content
https://imgur.com/user/Oktay74tn

On April 1, Artemis II launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It is the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. On a 10-day mission, the Orion spacecraft will fly around the far side of the Moon and then return to Earth.

These are the members of the Artemis II crew: Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Pilot Victor Glover. Commander Wiseman is holding Rise, the zero gravity indicator and mascot of the mission.

This close-up picture shows the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft, which consists of a service module and a crew module. The object at the top is the launch abort system.

In this image, the trajectory of Artemis II is shown in pink and that of the Moon in green. All essential life support systems on the spacecraft checked out. The translunar injection burn TLI for 5 minutes, 49 seconds using its Service Module set Orion on a free-return trajectory around the Moon. The crew's biomarkers will be tested every day.

The service module will separate before re-entering Earth's atmosphere and burn up. Orion's crew module will re-enter Earth's atmosphere at a velocity of 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) per hour. This is the heat shield of Artemis I, a critical component.

Commander Reid Wiseman took this beautiful image of Earth from the Orion spacecraft's window. It was named "Hello World". The picture features auroral lights at the poles. Zodiacal light can be seen at the bottom right as the Earth eclipses the Sun.

Artemis II
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

Artemis II Launch Day Updates
Jason Costa
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/01/live-artemis-ii-launch-day-updates/

NASA’s Artemis II Mission Leaves Earth Orbit for Flight around Moon
Lauren E. Low
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-artemis-ii-mission-leaves-earth-orbit-for-flight-around-moon/

Hello, World
Monika Luabeya
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/hello-world/

Artemis II
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/

Apollo 17 (last lunar landing mission)
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/apollo-17/

Wikipedia articles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_I
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(spacecraft)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomarker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello,_World_(NASA)

Solar System Series
Artemis II Crewed Moon Mission
https://imgur.com/gallery/artemis-ii-crewed-moon-mission-b1oJ2Z4

Origin of the Sun
https://imgur.com/gallery/origin-of-sun-M7d1eRi

Liquid Water in Mars' Upper Crust
https://imgur.com/gallery/liquid-water-mars-upper-crust-E6YVIU3

Aurorae on Jupiter Observed By Webb Telescope
https://imgur.com/gallery/aurorae-on-jupiter-observed-by-webb-telescope-lOXY7Oa

Extreme Solar Storm of 12,350 BC
https://imgur.com/gallery/extreme-solar-storm-of-12-350-bc-zcXCh7b

New Mercury Collision Theory
https://imgur.com/gallery/new-mercury-collision-theory-9J4qMqX

Solar Orbiter Pictures Sun's Poles
https://imgur.com/gallery/solar-orbiter-pictures-sun-s-poles-oUJhmHx

C/2014 UN271 Largest Comet With Molecular Activity
https://imgur.com/gallery/c-2014-un271-largest-comet-with-molecular-activity-kkTlKZE

Check out https://imgur.com/user/Oktay74tn for many more astronomy and technology videos.

Fartemis

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Very nice but now the orange jerk is cutting their funding. So the moon base is unlikely, again.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

😊👍

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Some are saying fake news! I say to them, "Stuff it!"

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

A journey around the Moon. I hope Daft Punk writes some lyrics about this event.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 1

Eli5 why this matters when they aren't even landing on the moon and doing the same thing as something unmanned can

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Yes! I was hoping Oktay would cover Artemis!

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Why?

1 week ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

Why not?

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

So cool. I feel like there's more moon landing deniers today than 30 years ago, but they all seem to respect these latest actions

1 week ago | Likes 18 Dislikes 0

I work with a moon landing denier, he thinks the launch was fake. Even though I told him I watched it with my own eyes. He's also a flat earther and a gigantic MAGAt.

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

Hah! You guys believe in the moon.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Despite the existing evidence of the prior moon mission programs, the science and hardware that enabled them plus moon rock samples brought back that prove beyond any doubt that they did take place, it was so saddening to see idiots falling for the fake moon landing theories.

There's powerful enough telescopes that can pick out objects on the moon from prior Apollo missions. I expect some idiots will think NASA is faking Artemis as well. They're beyond hope of reason.

1 week ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Just a note on the telescopes: the only telescopes that can do this are lunar orbiting telescopes like the NRO Orbiter. Apollo artifacts are too small and too far away for anything earth based or in earth orbit to see them, We can ping lasers off of lunar reflectors from here but we'd need a telescope about a mile and a half wide to see anything.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

OMFG MY ROOMMATE CAME IN WHILR I WAS WATCHING THE LAUNCH AND WENT OFF!!! He kept saying it's a massive hoax and he hopes it blows up so that the whole world will know its fake... kind of an oxymoron, IMO

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

I put that down to certain space followers who were simply annoyed at NASA going around and around in circles in orbit. They wanted more and turned not currently going to the Moon or Mars into "we can't go" where once that idea was out it snowballed. I would say this subject will largely correct itself very soon.

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

Do you doubt the moon landing?

1 week ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

I mean, NASA just launched our new moon flyby mission on April 1st, so that HAS to be a huge clue…

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 2

Nope, the evidence is overwhelming

1 week ago | Likes 7 Dislikes 0

Cool, but I fail to see what's going to be achieved apart from glory to the orange pig who ordered it. We have photos of the moon far better than their view through portholes and a trip to Mars is years away and will take many years to make.

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 22

Imagine being so uneducated that you think you can "order" a moon mission and have it just show up a month later, like you're buying it from Temu or something.

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

Your failure to understand the goals and accomplishments of this mission is both emblematic of people's distaste in learning about these missions while still confidently commenting about them, and not proof that there are no goals or accomplishments worth pursuing in this mission. Maybe in the future, instead of standing up to expose your lack of understanding and confidence judging at the same time which combine into an ugly picture, you could ask a question and seem more intelligent.

1 week ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 1

Artemis arguably started as the Constellation program of 2005. The goal is a sustainable presence rather than "flags and footprints", that can be used as a "stepping stone" to launch Mars missions.
Some valid criticism is that the whole project embarrasingly over budget and behind schedule, especially SLS, and even the marginal per-launch cost is around $2B with zero reuse.

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

Like, I hate Trump too, but taking this science post and making it about him achieves nothing. All that ragebait and polarization is what's accelerating the fall of America. What's needed is actionable steps, not just seething on the internet. Links to join your local political groups or ways to oppose authoritarianism.

1 week ago | Likes 12 Dislikes 1

Also, trump didn’t really create anything, anyway. He merely amended one of Obama’s directives on space to make a manned moon mission for commercial purposes more explicit, but NASA has been talking about a return to the moon and a Mars landing since the mid-1970s. This was inevitable and unlike Kennedy kicking off Apollo, this mission was not brought into existence through his popularity and force of will.it’s been building for literally 50 years.

1 week ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 1

There are three flawed assumptions in your statement; 1. Trump ordered this. He didn't, Artemis has been in the works since 2011 when we started working on SLS.

2. Its not just to take pictures of the moon. its to do science and test the equipment. and

3. going to mars doesn't happen without going to the moon again. We are over 50 years from our last trip to the moon, the moon is 10-11 earth diameters away from earth. Mars is 10-15 times further we don't go to mars without small steps first.

1 week ago | Likes 5 Dislikes 0

2005, if you count its origins as the Constellation Program

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

There are numerous benefits to be gained from this mission, sad to hear you fail to see that. While Artemis 2 is a critical test of NASA's deep-space hardware, it also aims to collect data on radiation exposure, health and human performance beyond low Earth orbit. And it will go to the far side of the moon, which never faces Earth, so we literally can't get photos of it from Earth.

1 week ago | Likes 8 Dislikes 1

are they just taking photos or are they going to use some sort of lidar to scan it?

1 week ago | Likes 1 Dislikes 0

If only there had been a link to an article all about the mission provided in a reply for over an hour before your reply asking for more information...

1 week ago | Likes 4 Dislikes 0

Here's more information, if you're interested. Otherwise, of course, you can just keep posting polarizing comments that reveal you stupidity.

https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis-ii-science/#lunarscience

1 week ago | Likes 6 Dislikes 0

If I’m not wrong, it says that it will serve us for future missions to the dark side of the moon. So in short term, it will report nothing. Meanwhile, we have people struggling to investigate cancer and other diseases. IMHO today is not the right time to spend effort and money on this. The moon and the rest of the universe will be there for millenniums, many children will not.

1 week ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0