2026-04-16 08:27:03
The #ArtemisII show goes on - in 10 hours at 18:30 UTC a press conference with the crew at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_43Ei9eQVww
The #ArtemisII show goes on - in 10 hours at 18:30 UTC a press conference with the crew at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_43Ei9eQVww
Also from the #LPSC #NASA HQ Briefing: the science riding along on #ArtemisII - I think "verbal descriptions" of the Moon haven't been defined science objectives since the Apollo days.
#Melodysheep, one of the best YouTube channels out there, has published a gorgeous tribute to #ArtemisII! 🚀
https://youtu.be/SGxz4LQfRpo
Artemis II - Return to the Moon: #ArtemisII.
watching the capsule plummet through the air before the chutes opened was definitely a little 😬
that was really great
#ArtemisII
!!! #ArtemisII sur le chemin du retour!
Le Monde – EN DIRECT, Artemis-2 : les astronautes de la NASA sont désormais Š moins de 13 000 km de la Terre, suivez leur retour
In order to celebrate the successful return to Earth of the #ArtemisII, I have defrosted a chocolate muffin in the replicator, er, I mean microwave oven.
The future is here, baby!
<gif of Kermit drinking tea>
The saga of the zodiacal-light-behind-the-Moon from #ArtemisII in search of a fully correct #caption continues ... The #NASA text for image https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55208682757/ published today finally does away with falsely claiming that this is the corona - good if shockingly late. But now it says: "The glow around the Moon is called zodiacal light, which describes interstellar dust that’s reflecting sunlight" - wrong again, it's interplanetary dust in our own solar system ...
Turns out the #ArtemisII reentry was visible from the #ISS . Amazing!
https://www.sen.com/video/e1cbd8ed-1363-4a
Breakfast. Like an astronaut.
#nutellainspace #artemisii
Nett hier, aber waren Sie schon mal hinter dem Mond?
#ArtemisII #Artemis2
Die Crew von #ArtemisII hat erstmals hochauflösende Bilder der #Erde auf dem Weg zum #Mond veröffentlicht.
Nach dem Trans-Lunar-Injection-Manöver fotografierte Kommandant Reid
Know where a great place to have watched the #ArtemisII mission, from launch to splashdown, would have been? The Ontario Science Centre.
#onpoli
They have landed!! #ArtemisII
I’m not crying, you’re crying #ArtemisII #CarrollCrater
I’ve made my calls to my representatives, so it’s time to share these four beautiful nerds.
More here: #ArtemisII
Half an hour till a Live Q&A with the #ArtemisII crew at the Canadian Space Agency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDOspdklOro (and if you can't wait: in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ES9WGxEMK0 they just spoke for an hour with Oprah).
Ticktock #ArtemisII
GROUP HUG for Carroll's Crater
(spouse of Commander Reid who passed away)
everybody's crying around here!
that was special.
#ArtemisII
Erasmus clock "next stop: Earth" ❤️ #ArtemisII
Brazilian technology helps NASA assess health risks for astronauts on mission to the Moon: #ArtemisII mission.
- Gib mir mal bitte mein Portable Computing Device.
- Du meinst Dein Handy?
- PORTABLE COMPUTING DEVICE!
#ArtemisII #Artemis2
Fresh off their return to Earth, the #ArtemisII astronauts will hold a news conference at 2:30 p.m. EDT Thursday, April 16, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to discuss their historic mission around the Moon: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-host-artemis-ii-crew-postflight-news-conference/
he won't say Canada.
"neighbour"
Cmd Jeremy Hansen will be very diplomatic.
more diplomatic than anyone on planet Earth needs to be.
#artemisIi
Rob Navias: "From the pages of Jules Verne to a modern day mission to the moon, a new chapter of exploration of our celestial neighbour is complete. This mission is over but the melody lingers on."
Me:
#ArtemisII
Wife: "it's a shame that in the history books, the return to the moon is now connected with... THAT president."
Me: "I see it this way: These four humans are they luckiest ever, the get further away from him than anybody else."
#artemisii
So the #ArtemisII FRR went "go" on all counts, they hope to roll out the stack to the pad again on 19 March and be ready to launch on 1 April at 22:24 UTC - the table of possible launch dates in April https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/artemis-ii-mission-availability.pdf just had another one added for 2 April.
that awkward pause after Trump bragged about ttalking to the Great One and PM Carney was 300,000km long. 😂 😂 😂
And the laugh was..... beautiful. 😂
#artemisIi
I just realized that they are basically flying two eggs.
#ArtemisII #Artemis2
The NASA's #ArtemisII Flight Readiness News Conference should commence in 1/2 hour on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpMMAdqMGWA
So nice to hear Rob Navias at the #ArtemisII broadcast. Absolute legend.
Recap videos of #ArtemisII from NASA and LockMart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfRqrrBbT-Y and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwaLS3KLc5M. And what Gene Krantz thinks of all this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUfKtg1qbYk
There is another Artemis tracking page here.
The Canadian version is down.
#NASA #ArtemisII
https://artemis2-mission.com
The #ArtemisII crew on the John P. Murtha with their Orion - on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYY4nnfxKbU their arrival in Houston will be streamed from 20:00 UTC today!
Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a global treasure. Watching his interview with the CBC in relation first to the significance of the Canadian on the Artemis II and on the mission in general is really a delight.
A truly masterful communicator.
His section starts at 4:35
#Canada #Space #ArtemisII
Raumschiff Orion also heute Nacht am Start. Nice.
#ArtemisII
A nice reminder that @… just shared :)
#ArtemisII
two Canadians playing key roles right now as this historic flyby happens! Jeremy Hansen of course is in the Integrity capsule and fellow CSA astronaut Jenni Gibbons is the CapCom during that time and most of the active time of the Artemis mission!
#nasa #moon #artemisII
Separation of the ESM! #ArtemisII continues to deliver impressive visuals.
What a sad moment when the 24/7 #ArtemisII live stream was shut down at 2:20 UTC ...had it on almost, well, 24/7. ;-) Little consolation prize: the Artemis II Post-Splashdown News Conference in a few minutes on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir2X1-FjDxg
Going to the Moon and back apparently makes you … very happy: #ArtemisII astronauts Glover and Koch in the helicopter after landing on the USS John P. Murtha.
For all the critics I made of the camera direction during launch, today is a good reminder of why NASA'S PAO is the gold standard. #ArtemisII
YES!!!
go go go!!!
#artemisII
On #ArtemisII ... 3:45 till splash-down.
RE: #ArtemisII to the boat.
Made it home in time!
Still go for launch!
Clock starting! -10m
#artemisII
NASA just dropped a hi-res image from the beginning of the eclipse #ArtemisII experienced at https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55197506830/ - it's dominated by a broad corona streamer bundle sitting on top of the zodiacal light pyramid. (In https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/04/09/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-9-april-2026/#Apr09 I have rotated it so that it matches the SOHO LASCO C2 view which in https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10164990866429808 is matched to the well-known eclipse end picture.) But south of the streamers sits something bright at the lunar limb that baffles me: what can be so bright - and even colorful - at this location when the Sun is already well behind the Moon? Is this astrophysics or rather selenophysics? Ideas?
The #ArtemisII Crew News Conference is underway at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkyUSFYrsKM is underway - looong delay between questions and answers.
And the #ArtemisII zodiacal light images from the GoPro camera (!) are *also* 'full of stars' (and three planets) as https://bsky.app/profile/chrisbecke.bsky.social/post/3miwj4tf54s23 shows.
The next #ArtemisII Daily News Conference is coming up at the top of the hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZFM9ywOpl0 (and later we'll have - at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkyUSFYrsKM - the first and only press conference with the crew).
NASA's most import launch in decades and they are using the most choppy video codec ever. #ArtemisII
Back to the #ArtemisII launch exactly one week ago - here is a most remarkable Near-Infrared high-resolution video of it: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SJ7aMoRa0wA (particularly clear because long wavelengths are less affected by seeing).
Meanwhile in an hour on #ArtemisII press conference with details about the Orion's return.
In visible light - and color - the #ArtemisII launch in high resolution is also nice: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/a1uvU8Y7h10
RE: #ArtemisII solar eclipse the dark Moon was surrounded solely by zodiacal light as the 20° large disk covered the solar corona completely - but at the beginning and end of the eclipse parts of the corona and its streamers could be imaged, too, for a short time, contrast-enhanced here!
The Moon-in-front-of-the-Zodiacal-Light image from #ArtemisII has even more in it than first thought: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=26714502164842036 shows how you can locate comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) in it by starhopping via Markab - the comet had about 6 mag. at the time.
Good news from another one of the #CubeSats sent along with #ArtemisII - Germany's #Tacheles has phoned home: https://www.tu.berlin/news/nachricht/artemis-mission-berliner-satellit-erfolgreich-im-all-ausgesetzt (in https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=68539 its highly elliptical orbit),
The #ArtemisII picture I had been waiting for - the dark Moon with a bit of #earthshine on the left in front of the #zodiacalLight going all around: https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e009301 (this is essentially the Apollo 11 image from 1969 - https://www.facebook.com/dan.fischer.393/posts/pfbid02mf6UK3L2j5SgPiQsJk9JVYmo6XvZwDDZ23BYpXwJPDszaSpUYzuinkMyHzh9RF8Rl - again but with the Sun more centered ... and with half a century of photo tech inbetween).
Next #ArtemisII lunar close-up picture published: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55193137293/in/album-72177720307234654 with part of the terminator on the far side.
Here is earthrise after #ArtemisII has passed behind the Moon as seen from Earth: https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e009280b
And so the *real* images from the #ArtemisII ride behind the Moon are beginning to come in! Here is the Earth setting at 22:41 UTC yesterday: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55192084847/in/album-72177720307234654
Yes, you can identify several (K) corona streamers in the #ArtemisII image of the end of the solar eclipse - by comparing it with a SOHO LASCO C2 image from 4 hours earlier: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10164990866429808 (the glow behind them and *everything* in https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55193054741/ is zodiacal light, unrelated to the sizzling solar atmosphere). Meanwhile here is yet another NASA album for photographs from the flyby: https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/lunar-flyby/
The end of the #SolarEclipse for #ArtemisII with probably some K #corona streamers becoming visible against the diffuse F corona: https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e009299 - more processing (like with a traditional corona image from a TSE on Earth) will be required.
Earth vanishing behind the Moon for the #ArtemisII Orion - only a super-crappy camera caught the scene live. Closest approach to the Moon and largest distance from Earth also just happened. The latter should reappear at about 23:22 UTC and communication regained: https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/04/07/die-orion-von-artemis-ii-ist-jetzt-hinter-dem-mond/ is covering events now ... and hopefully many *good* photographs arriving in the coming days.
NSF Green Bank Observatory Shares Images, Data From #ArtemisII Mission: https://public.nrao.edu/news/there-are-4-people-in-those-pixels-nsf-green-bank-observatory-shares-images-data-from-artemis-ii-mission/ - radar signals received by world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope tracked spacecraft with NASA’s communications network for historic lunar test flight.
Part of the #ZodiacalLight and #earthshine - with Mare Crisium - in yet another #ArtemisII image: https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e009298
Another view of the #ZodiacalLight behind the #Moon, from a camera on the solar cells. And the daily #ArtemisII press conferences resume now, the first one post-flyby coming up at the bottom of the hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YWATA3d5dU
The Mare Orientale is moving more and more to the center of the Moon for the #ArtemisII crew, here in the latest image https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55191470911/in/album-72177720307234654 zoomed in on the right,
The Earth in the #ArtemisII rearview mirror - kind of - today, really small now: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55189687036/. All about the lunar flyby in a press conference at 22:30 UTC at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46uxUxGpjtY - 75 minutes from now. And the window view of Earth just after leaving, with geography identified: https://www.facebook.com/rherrera71/posts/pfbid02NHATBT6ag9U4MxtXhrL9S2ia6ZkhN3FFskGL5AHGeAx7oRctTDxoCF5P8zxdyoRTl
Exactly 24 hours from now - at 0:35 UTC on 7 April - the total eclipse for the #ArtemisII crew will begin ... will they see / be able to photograph the fading detached dust tail of #Kreutz comet MAPS imaged here by #ZodiacalLight / potential dust hovering over the lunar limb might record it as well.
More #MareOrientale in this new #ArtemisII #Moon image - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/55190158269/in/album-72177720307234654 - than in the first one with a long focal length presented. The lunar flyby webcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-j1uxBmis0 will begin at 17:00 UTC today and the lunar observations run from 18:45 UTC to 1:20 UTC on 7 April - as explained in the press conference tonight we will mostly get images from the exterior cameras with astronaut commentary of what they see; real photographs like this one will be downloaded later during the day and the following ones.
There is now some lunar surface detail visible in #ArtemisII photographs showing the Moon behind the Orion: from the JSC album https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/albums/72177720307234654/with/55186770575 which should also be monitored for new mission images dropping.
NASA has finally published a detailled simulation of what the #ArtemisII lunar flyby will look like from the Orion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmQ4546iIvI - happy to see that it matches the two simulations (prepared on my request, assuming an April 1st launch) I had shown on March 30th in https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/03/26/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-26-marz-2026/#Mar30 had essentially nailed it. Actual times of key events have recently been added to https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/artemis-2/nasa-sets-coverage-for-artemis-ii-moon-mission/ (under Monday, April 6) - the main question now is how much of this culmination of the mission we will see ... and when. At a press conference Sunday at 22:30 UTC more information is expected.
And so #ArtemisII delivers ... the dark side of the Earth last night, illuminated by the full Moon, with a bright atmospheric arc indicating where the Sun is hiding and aurora in several places. While beyond Earth at 5 o'clock you see the zodiacal light and Venus and many stars. A bit noisy but something never imaged before AFAIK - the Apollo era photographic film wasn't up to this. From https://x.com/NASA/status/2040059770237849635 while https://x.com/NASA/status/2040059740848283920 shows a fraction of the Earth's dayside.
12,217 pictures taken during the #ArtemisII mission have been dumped at https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/ShowQueryResults-Lightcycle.pl?results=1777772559122361 (thumbnails) and https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/ShowQueryResults-TextTable.pl?results=177781480697921 (table), so far without listed metadata or tags. At first glance no entirely new vistas beyond the PR releases out during / just after the mission appear in this vast collection, mostly endless exposure sequences and unlucky sky images - but amateur image processors can now stack and further enhance the Artemis II haul with a vengeance ...
The #Moon in a perfectly fitting #easteregg shape in the live stream #ArtemisII right now. Two new updates: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/04/artemis-ii-flight-day-4-crew-completes-manual-piloting-demonstration/ and just in https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/05/artemis-ii-flight-day-5-crew-starts-day-with-suit-demo/
By popular demand here is the full-moon-lit night image of Earth from #ArtemisII in a rotated (NW now up) and zoomed-in version, now directly from https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/hello-world/ - the technical data has https://nitter.net/Erdayastronaut/status/2040105622046118282 and there is also a version with much shorter exposure at https://nitter.net/NASA/status/2040114101670523381 and a half-Earth at https://nitter.net/NASA/status/2040114160529179103 while the view with the window frame is at https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e000191
The best view from the #ArtemisII mission so far came at noon UTC today when a solar-wing-mounted camera broastcast this view of Earth some 70,000 km away next to the ESM engines for a while. The Orion and the ESM are on their way back to perigee now - and around 23:45 UTC the trans-lunar injection burn is expected.
The first orbital media event with the #ArtemisII crew is happening right now, live on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs
After a successful 5 minutes 55 seconds Translunar Injection Burn the daily #ArtemisII press conference should come at the bottom of the hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Pq35gm4qA
And now an #ArtemisII post-launch press conference on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrhH05U_Zds
RE: #ArtemisII Mission Update briefing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5PLvqX2q8w - in Q&A we learned that contact has been made to only two of the four CubeSats deployed so far, the German one https://mastodon.social/@DLR@social.bund.de/116329959429900989 not among them. Anyway, here is a cool timelapse of the deployment as seen in the sky: https://bsky.app/profile/s2a-systems.bsky.social/post/3mimb3zb5gs2i
A permanent webcast of #ArtemisII has begun at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs and will first cover tanking and run all the way to splashdown (separate webcasts will cover special mission phases like lift-off). Also live updates will be published on the page https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/04/01/live-artemis-ii-launch-day-updates/ just set up.
The best view from the botched #ArtemisII NASA launch webcast: the separation of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (with the Orion, not visible) from the Core Stage, seen from the Launch Vehicle Stage Adapter - scroll down on https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/04/01/artemis-ii-vor-dem-start-maps-vor-dem-perihel/ for a sequence of nine screenshots from the whole ascent.
The first (NASA) photograpg of the #ArtemisII launch published: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/55182696113/in/album-72177720331487648
At the top of the hour the #ArtemisII L-1 Countdown Status News Conference - the final one before the planned launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PhQJCzhCOw (new on the panel for the first time is launch weather officer Mark Burger).
At the top of the hour an #ArtemisII L-2 Countdown Status News Conference at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL3AyQ766vc - according to the timeline https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-releases-artemis-ii-moon-mission-launch-countdown/ the countdown should begin 15 minutes from now; check https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/artemis/ for updates.
Since this one will certainly be archived (not sure about the permanent webcast), #ArtemisII launch. The crew is already in the capsule - this had been their walk-out: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2086875691887758 and https://www.facebook.com/scott.schilke.1/posts/pfbid0261UbknbRbYWXenoR8DgC3GcDDH4RRL6FDgoW13vycnXUz4Tq5oz1yXLbzcYuPjMjl
At the bottom of the hour an #ArtemisII Q&A with the crew from Quarantine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii_tmJff7LQ. Followed at 18:00 UTC by an Artemis II L-3 Countdown Status News Conference at t-3 days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQH21XCsp5U
So far NASA hasn't released any post-flight images of the #ArtemisII heat shield (except for a weird under-water view) - but here is one, kind of, I have extracted from the series https://www.facebook.com/NavalBaseSD/posts/pfbid05mJ788QWZoVSugx81FqT9aqGMSmvdCNP9P7KQfXtc6GevGQMtCkh184xgFV3N26vl of images taken by the Naval Base San Diego during a series of precision crane lifts and movements to prepare the Orion spacecraft for its final cross-country trip to Kennedy Space Center.
And the #ArtemisII stack is back in the VAB, arriving around 1:00 UTC today: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/25/nasa-artemis-ii-rocket-returns-for-repairs/ - while in the assembly building, technicians will troubleshoot the helium flow issue to the rocket’s upper stage, replace batteries on the rocket’s upper stage, core stage, and solid rocket boosters as well as service its flight termination system.
And now on #ArtemisII Update to discuss "the next steps": https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-discuss-next-steps-for-artemis-campaign/
Near the end of a sad journey ... the #ArtemisII stack almost back at the VAB after crawling for 9 1/2 hours, from the live feed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCrPD7tfcr0 - see https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/ for updates.
The #ArtemisII mission has quite an impact on ... the operation of the James Webb Space Telescope as #JWST operations plan currently assumes roughly a quarter of the usual #DeepSpaceNetwork (DSN) access will be available, which has a direct impact on the number of science visits that can be executed and the volume of data that can be downlinked."
Q&A with the #ArtemisII crew when they just arrived at the KSC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg-sDsbJp7E. And how Europe will power the journey to the Moon and back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq6hz0GFEO4 - from ESA which also made https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMt0njvmu0Y
During NASA’s #ArtemisII mission to the Moon, four astronauts will live and work inside the Orion spacecraft after launching atop the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lxDQj7CFyI - the crew will test Orion’s systems throughout their 10-day mission to ensure the spacecraft can keep astronauts safe and healthy in deep space.
Due to weather, NASA now is targeting early Wednesday, Feb. 25, to roll the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for #ArtemisII off the launch pad and back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/23/nasa-targets-artemis-ii-rollback-on-wednesday/ - cold temperatures and high winds are expected Tuesday, and rolling on Feb. 25, gives teams enough time to complete preparations at the launch pad that were limited today by high winds in the area.
NASA is taking steps to potentially roll back the #ArtemisII rocket and Orion spacecraft to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after overnight Feb. 21 observing interrupted flow of helium to the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/21/nasa-troubleshooting-artemis-ii-rocket-upper-stage-issue-preparing-to-roll-back/ - the upper stage uses helium to maintain the proper environmental conditions for the stage’s engine and to pressurize liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant tanks; the systems worked during NASA’s Artemis II wet dress rehearsals, but teams were not able to properly flow helium during normal operations and reconfigurations following the wet dress rehearsal that concluded Feb. 19.
"The #ArtemisII wet dress rehearsal ended today at 10:16 p.m., concluding as planned at T-29 seconds in the countdown."