Artemis II launch: NASA astronauts board spacecraft ahead of scheduled flight around the moon

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Artemis II launch: Astronauts ready as countdown begins

How Canada earned a seat on Artemis II

'This is bucket list': Space fans gather in Florida to watch Artemis II launch

How Jeremy Hansen trains for space — including the worst-case scenario

What will be going through Hansen's mind before takeoff?

NASA prepares for a historic journey to the Moon

Why are we going to the moon?

Hansen on getting ready for the moon

'How do you brush your teeth in space?' Canadian astronaut tackles questions from B.C. Kids

If everything goes to plan, Jenni Gibbons won’t go to space

Artemis II: What it's like to be there covering the launch

What an astronaut tells their family before going to space

Artemis II crew enter spacecraft

Artemis II crew members — Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch — have entered the Orion spacecraft after arriving at the launch pad.

NASA is getting ready to launch four astronauts, including Canada's Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day flight around the moon and back. 

Hansen, Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch have entered the Orion capsule on top of the giant Space Launch System rocket at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Artemis II is set to take astronauts farther from Earth than any previous human spaceflight. If the mission is successful, the flight could lay the groundwork for future missions to the surface of the moon.

The first of the launch windows runs today from 6:24 p.m. To 8:24 p.m. ET. If today's liftoff is called down, there will be subsequent opportunities every night until Monday.

We'll have live coverage here on this page. In the meantime:

The Orion capsule is just 3.35 metres high and five metres in diameter, with a habitable volume of 9.34 square metres. That's some tight quarters for four people on a nearly 10-day trip. I hope everyone packed deodorant.

Our colleagues dug deeper into what it's like living in Orion — which can theoretically support a 21-day mission — on an extended stay in deep space.

There's about 90 minutes to go before the launch window opens. 

Just after 3 p.m. ET, the mission's close-out team began preparing and closing the crew module hatch of the Orion spacecraft, according to NASA's website. One of the most critical steps ahead of the launch, this process makes sure the spacecraft is fully pressurized and ready for flight.

We spoke with Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk on the lawn of Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Kutryk is not part of the mission but is here observing.

He said it's only natural for Hansen to have "some nerves" before an event of this magnitude.

"Of course, he's going to have some nerves," he said. "If you go and you stand on that gangplank on the way into the rocket — it's 100 metres in the air, and below you, you see the entire coast of Florida. But you also see the most powerful human transportation system that has ever existed. 

"You have to think about what that feels like to climb in, put all the seatbelts on, and then have everybody else leave — until it's just the four of you, that crew, atop this amazing machine."

Ahead of the launch, Hansen shared a heartfelt message to Canadians in both English and French. 

"Canada, I am thinking of you and I am hoping you see your greatness reflected in this journey around the moon," he said in a video posted a few hours ago.  

"I'm just so proud of all of you." 

One last message before the launch of Artemis II... <a href="https://t.co/IpmYBKrhu7">pic.twitter.com/IpmYBKrhu7</a>

I've interviewed Hansen a number of times over the years, and I've always liked these words he shared.

"I think it's extraordinary that we're the second country in the world to send a human into deep space. And I want to reflect that back on Canadians and just use this [trip] to remind them, 'Hey, we do already do extraordinary things,'" he told me during training in Houston last fall.

"And if we're doing this — imagine what we can do next?"

While we wait for the launch, here's a fun fact about Jeremy Hansen: he's tall.

In fact, he's almost too tall to be an astronaut. The Canadian Space Agency puts a height limit on those it sends into space and anyone taller than 190.5 centimetres (or six feet three inches) is disqualified. Hansen checks in at 188 centimetres, or six feet two inches. In the U.S. The average height for a male NASA astronaut is just 175 centimetres (five feet nine inches).

Why does it matter? Because there's very little extra room on board space capsules.

I learned all of this from Hansen himself back in 2009. We bumped into each other in a motel elevator in Cocoa Beach, Fla., south of the Kennedy Space Center. He'd just been named a CSA astronaut, and we were both in town to watch the liftoff of the final space shuttle mission to include a Canadian, Julie Payette, on board Endeavour.

The first thing I blurted out to him: "You're pretty tall for an astronaut!"

"I sure am," he said. 

We had a nice chat, in which he told me he's forever grateful he stopped growing just in the nick of time.

The Associated Press

5 questions with a Canadian astronaut

Ahead of NASA's Artemis II mission, The National asks Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen five questions about space travel and preparing for a journey around the moon.

The four people making NASA's next lunar leap bear little resemblance to the astronauts of the Apollo era. The Americans who blazed the trail to the moon more than half a century ago were white men chosen for their military test pilot experience. This first Artemis crew includes a woman, a person of colour and a Canadian.

Commander Reid Wiseman: Wiseman, 50, a retired U.S. Navy captain from Baltimore, was serving as NASA's chief astronaut when he was asked three years ago to lead humanity's first lunar trip since 1972. His wife Carroll's death from cancer in 2020 gave him pause as a single parent, but his teenage daughters gave their blessing. Wiseman previously spent more than five months on board the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014.

Pilot Victor Glover: As one of NASA's few Black astronauts, Glover sees his presence on the mission as "a force for good." The U.S. Navy captain and former combat pilot from Pomona, Calif., makes it a habit to listen to Gil Scott-Heron's Whitey on the Moon and Marvin Gaye's Make Me Wanna Holler from the white-dominated Apollo era. "I listen to those for perspective," he said. "It captures what we did well, what we did poorly."

Mission specialist Christina Koch: The electrical engineer from Jacksonville, N.C., holds the record for the longest single space flight by a woman: 328 days. Koch, 47, took part in the first all-female spacewalk during her lengthy stay at the ISS in 2019. More than any one individual, her presence on the mission is about "celebrating the fact that we've arrived to this place in history" where women can fly to the moon, she said.

Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen: The Canadian fighter pilot and physicist is making his space debut, but also serving as his country's first emissary to the moon. Hansen, 50, grew up on a farm near London, Ont., before moving to nearby Ingersoll and pursuing a flying career. The Canadian Space Agency selected him as an astronaut in 2009 and he was named to the Artemis crew in 2023.

'This is bucket list': Space fans gather in Florida to watch Artemis II launch

NASA's Artemis II mission could launch on Wednesday. Many people are gathering along Florida's 'Space Coast,' eagerly anticipating the first crewed mission to the moon in decades.

I'm reporting from Florida's blank Coast today. The jack kennedy blank centre is on the other face of the Indian River; we can see the Artemis II rocket about 20 kilometres away.

I'm joined by a growing crowd; some people got here as early as 6 a.m. ET to reserve a prime viewing spot for the launch.

I spotted Elizabeth Hall, who is wearing a Space Camp jumpsuit. She attended the summer camp a few years ago and got inspired. She wants to study engineering and possibly become an astronaut one day.

"It's such a momentous occasion for the younger generations, just because we weren't able to see Apollo or … the height of the space shuttle program. So I'm here because I really want to see where the space program is going next," she said.

Celeste Krys and her husband are here because their daughter is working on the Artemis II project. She's across the river today, doing her part. 

"I'm like, 'Just remember, you're always going to be connected to some firsts here today; the first woman [and] the first African American [on] the first trip back toward the moon,'" Krys said.

(I reminded her it's also the first Canadian to travel to deep space!) 

"We're really geeking out. It just … blows our minds that she's even there."

Local officials say up to 500,000 people could be here to watch what they hope will be a successful launch in just a few hours.

There are also four payloads from four different countries heading into orbit, carried in the Orion stage adapter. They're all CubeSats — relatively inexpensive, microwave-sized satellites — and will be deployed while Orion orbits Earth.

One is from Argentina, called ATENEA, which will study radiation shielding and long-range communications. 

The TACHELES CubeSat from the German Aerospace Centre will test in-space technologies like electrical components.

Another, from the Saudi Space Agency, will measure space weather like radiation, magnetic fields and solar energy particles.

Finally, there is a CubeSat from the Korea AeroSpace Administration that will also study space radiation — but particularly the biological effects encountered beyond the Van Allen radiation belts, the donut-shaped rings around Earth that contain trapped high-energy particles that are dangerous to astronauts. 

Orion will aim to travel through areas of these belts where the particles are less concentrated.

Originally, Artemis II was supposed to be the final test before the next mission — Artemis III — landed astronauts on the moon in 2028. 

NASA recently shook up those plans, changing the third Artemis mission to a low-Earth orbit test and making Artemis IV — still scheduled for 2028 — the one that lands on the moon. 

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