现场直播：美国宇航局阿尔忒弥斯二号从佛罗里达升空，机组人员开启历史性月球往返任务

Live: NASA’s Artemis II blasts off from Florida as crew begins historic mission toward the moon

2026-04-01T21:01:45.554Z / Reuters

Summary

1. NASA’s Artemis II launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida
2. It’s the first crewed mission around the moon in more than 50 years
3. Mission poised to be the furthest human flight into space ever
4. Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen aboard
5. Rocket blasted off at 6:35 p.m. ET (2235 GMT)
6. If you can’t see the content of video posts, please adjust your cookie settings

This video is live; comments made by participants have not been verified by Reuters. Stay with us for fact-checking and analysis.

FILE PHOTO: Hansen at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Steve Nesius节点运行失败

One of the astronauts is Canadian Jeremy Hansen, who will become the first non-American to go beyond low Earth orbit. It’ll also be his first time in space.

His participation reflects a long-standing U.S.-Canadian partnership in human spaceflight, including Canada’s contributions to robotics used aboard the International Space Station.

Hansen’s participation in the Artemis mission was part of a 2020 agreement between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

“It was the result ‌of decades of ⁠contribution and strategic investment on our part that led to this participation,” said Mathieu Caron, head of CSA’s astronaut office, citing the robotics contributions.

A child at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Titusville, Florida, U.S., April 1, 2026. REUTERS/Marco Bello节点运行失败

Crowds at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, REUTERS/Marco Bello节点运行失败

People watch the launch at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. REUTERS/Marco Bello节点运行失败

Watch party at the Gerstein Science Information Centre in Toronto, Canada. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio节点运行失败

A monitor in the White House briefing room shows the launch, in Washington, D.C. REUTERS/Evan Vucci节点运行失败

FILE PHOTO: Bolden in Cape Canaveral, Florida, February 20, 2011. REUTERS/Scott Audette节点运行失败

Retired astronaut and former NASA administrator Charlie Bolden had tears of joy watching the launch from a few miles away.

“It was bittersweet to see. I wish I was on it,” Bolden told me.

“It was incredible to see. I’m an emotional person, just tears of joy, thinking about all the people that have been working to this day for more than a decade just to get here. Very proud. I hope that in the morning when I wake up and I watch all the news coverage, no matter what country it’s coming from, people will be saying ‘We are on our way back to the moon.’ We are on our way back to the moon.”

His last trip to space was in 1994 on the STS-60 shuttle mission.

While this Artemis mission will not stop on the moon, here’s a look back at the first time humans landed on it.

Aldrin walks on the moon July 20, 1969, photographed by fellow astronaut Armstrong. NASA via REUTERS节点运行失败

This iconic photograph of Astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin’s moon walk on July 20, 1969, was taken by fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong.

Armstrong famously said of the landing by Apollo 11 crew: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Footprints on the lunar dust are visible on the lower left of the picture.

Aldrin poses beside the deployed U.S. flag during the Apollo 11 moon landing, July 20, 1969. NASA via REUTERS节点运行失败

Aldrin, the mission’s lunar module pilot, posed for a picture beside the flag of the United States. The lunar module is at left and the footprints of the astronauts are visible in the foreground.

Astronaut’s footprint in the lunar soil in July 1969 file photo. Kennedy Space Center via REUTERS节点运行失败

Another archive photograph shows a close-up view of an Apollo 11 astronaut’s footprint in the lunar soil photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera.

The Apollo 11 Lunar Module photographed from the Command and Service Modules in lunar orbit in this July, 1969 file photo. Kennedy Space Center via REUTERS节点运行失败

This photograph shows the Apollo 11 Lunar Module – which had the mission name The Eagle -in its ascent stage, with astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin aboard.

It was taken from the Command and Service Module by fellow astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, who remained in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin explored the Moon.

Armstrong uttered the famed phrase “The Eagle has landed” after touchdown on the lunar surface.

Cape Canaveral, Florida, April 1, 2026. REUTERS/Steve Nesius节点运行失败

NASA’s Artemis program is the U.S. effort to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo era and eventually establish a sustained human presence there. Washington has framed the goal as central to maintaining space leadership amid growing competition from China.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, on Sunday said the moon is a “witness plate” to the solar system’s formation, and a stepping stone to Mars.

Through a series of increasingly advanced Artemis missions extending into the next decade, the U.S. aims to set precedent for how others will operate and coexist on the moon’s surface, where someday countries and companies can exploit rocky lunar resources and practice for much more difficult missions to Mars.

FILE PHOTO: NASA’s Orion Capsule on December 11, 2022 in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. Mario Tama/Pool via REUTERS节点运行失败

The Artemis program is the U.S. effort to return astronauts to the moon and eventually establish a sustained human presence there.

Here are key milestones in the program:

2017-2018: Program revived

During the first administration of President Donald Trump, NASA was directed to refocus human spaceflight on the moon ‌after years of prioritizing Mars.

2019: Accelerated timeline set

In 2019, the White House set a target of landing astronauts on the moon by 2024.

2020–2021: Delays mount

Technical challenges, cost overruns and COVID pandemic-related disruptions pushed back schedules.

2022: Artemis I flies

In November 2022, NASA launched Artemis I, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon and back during a 25-day mission.

2023–2024: Program recalibrated

Under the administration of President Joe Biden, NASA reset Artemis timelines, pushing the first crewed lunar landing to 2027.

2024: Artemis II crew named

NASA announced the four astronauts for Artemis II: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

2026: Artemis program overhauled under new leadership

After taking office, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced a sweeping overhaul of the Artemis program.

April 2026: Artemis II mission around the moon

Later this decade: moon landing ⁠planned

Artemis is intended to return astronauts to the lunar surface using a commercially developed lander, a step NASA says is essential before future missions to Mars.

Read more here.

Cape Canaveral, Florida, April 1, 2026. REUTERS/Joe Skipper节点运行失败

The mission is expected to last about 10 days. Here is a day-by-day outline:

DAYS 1-2

The crew will spend the first one to two days in high Earth orbit conducting extensive systems checks. Once checks are complete, Orion’s propulsion system will perform a critical maneuver known as translunar injection, sending the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and onto a trajectory ‌toward ⁠the moon.

DAYS 3-4

During the several-day transit to the moon, astronauts will continue monitoring spacecraft systems. Orion will pass behind the moon on a “free-return” trajectory — a path that ⁠naturally swings the spacecraft back toward Earth without requiring additional propulsion.

DAYS 5-8

After the lunar flyby, the crew will spend several days heading home ⁠while conducting additional deep-space tests. The spacecraft is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean, where recovery teams will retrieve the crew.

Read more here.

NASA’s Artemis II mission lifts off at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, April 1, 2026. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid节点运行失败

The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion crew capsule. REUTERS/Joe Skipper节点运行失败

The rocket ascends after liftoff, with its solid rocket boosters already detached. REUTERS/Steve Nesius节点运行失败

Countdown clock before the launch at the Kennedy Space Center. REUTERS/Joe Skipper节点运行失败

People gather to watch the Artemis II launch. REUTERS/Steve Nesius节点运行失败

NASA says the main engine cutoff of the launch system’s core stage is complete, and the core stage has successfully separated from the interim cryogenic propulsion stage and the Orion spacecraft.

This marks the transition to upper‑stage operations of the Artemis II mission.

The rocket is now at supersonic speed, traveling at more than 5,000 mph (8,500 kph).

Cape Canaveral, Florida, April 1, 2026. REUTERS/Joe Skipper节点运行失败

The Artemis II’s 322-foot (98-m) Space Launch System rocket topped with the astronauts’ Orion crew capsule launched at 6:35 p.m. ET (2235 GMT).

Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson gave her final go remarks: “Artemis II crew is go for launch. Full send,” she said.

FILE PHOTO: Glover speaks to the media next to Hansen, Koch, and Wiseman, at Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Joe Skipper节点运行失败

The crew has spent more than two years training for the mission since being named in 2023.

Reid Wiseman, 50, logged 165 days aboard the International Space Station during a 2014 mission launched aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

A former U.S. Navy test pilot, he later ⁠served as NASA’s chief astronaut before being selected to command Artemis II.

“The nation and the world has been waiting a long time to do this again,” Wiseman told reporters last week, adding that he and his crewmates “are really pumped to go do this.”

Victor Glover, 49, spent 168 days in space beginning in 2020 as pilot of NASA’s Crew-1 mission, the first operational ISS mission using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule. Before joining NASA, he flew more than 40 aircraft during a U.S. Navy career that included combat deployments ⁠and test-pilot duties.

Christina Koch, 47, set a record in 2019 for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman, spending 328 days aboard the ISS. Trained as an electrical engineer and physicist, she previously worked as a NASA engineer and carried out extended research expeditions in Antarctica.

Jeremy Hansen, 50, was selected as a Canadian astronaut in 2009. His seat reflects a long-standing U.S.–Canadian partnership in human spaceflight.

This will mark his first time in space.

The launch had been planned for as early as February 6, and then March 6, until a hydrogen leak prompted NASA to ‌roll the ⁠rocket back to its vehicle assembly building for scrutiny.

But there were major delays before then too.

In January 2024, NASA pushed back the Artemis II launch nearly a year, from late 2024 to September 2025.

The Orion spacecraft caused some of the delay. Its heat shield, the shell that protects astronauts from the heat of re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, and its electrical system, including its batteries, had issues.

In December 2024, NASA examined the capsule and heat shield and further postponed the launch to April 2026.

I’m a Reuters space reporter, and right now I’m in Florida covering the launch.

Here’s what we know about why the U.S. is returning to the moon: