Artemis II Is Around the Moon Right Now — Here Is What the Crew Are Actually Doing

Artemis II successfully launched and four astronauts are now closer to the moon than any humans since 1972. Here is the day-by-day account of what they are testing and experiencing.

Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen are, as of April 3, 2026, at a distance from Earth that no human has reached since December 1972, when Apollo 17's crew completed the final lunar surface mission. The nine-and-a-half-day Artemis II mission has proceeded smoothly from launch, with NASA's mission controllers confirming normal performance across all monitored systems in the post-launch phase.

The specific activities the crew are conducting in this first human deep-space mission of the 21st century are substantially different from what television coverage might lead audiences to imagine. Most of their time is not spent looking at the moon in awe — though Glover's social media post from the first day suggested the view does have that effect — but conducting the systematic verification testing that is the mission's actual scientific and engineering purpose.

Day 2-3: Environmental Control and Life Support System evaluation. Koch, whose 328-day ISS mission gave her more life support expertise than any other NASA astronaut, leads the systematic testing of oxygen generation, CO2 scrubbing, humidity control, and water recycling that Orion's ECLSS must demonstrate at deep-space conditions. The pressure differential, radiation environment, and thermal cycling at lunar distances differ from ISS conditions, and demonstrating that ECLSS functions correctly at these conditions is a primary Artemis II objective.

Day 4-5: Optical communications system testing. Orion carries NASA's first operational deep-space optical communications payload — a laser-based system that enables significantly higher data rates than radio communications. The specific testing involves establishing and maintaining the optical link during various orbital positions relative to Earth's light conditions, validating the pointing and acquisition procedures that Artemis III will depend on.

Day 6-7: Lunar flyby and the furthest point. The crew will pass approximately 10,000 kilometres beyond the moon's far side — further from Earth than any human has ever been. This will be the mission's most emotionally charged moment. It is also, from a technical standpoint, the critical test of Orion's navigation and communication systems at maximum distance.

For the four crew members, the mission's personal dimension coexists with its engineering purpose. Victor Glover has said quietly that he 'thinks about what this represents beyond the mission' — a statement that does not require elaboration.