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Artemis II, Nasa’s first crewed lunar rocket in more than half a century, prepares for launch – watch and follow live | Space
The Artemis II mission
Artemis II is the second flight, and first crewed mission, of the core component of Nasa’s Moon to Mars initiative, which aims to build a permanent, habitable lunar base as a prelude to eventual human flights to the red planet.
Assuming a successful launch on Wednesday, it will be a 10-day fly past of the moon, with no landing, in which the four astronauts will travel farther into space, just short of 253,000 miles, than any human beings before them.
The objectives are to test crucial spacecraft and life support systems, monitor extensively the astronauts’ health during a long-duration spaceflight, specifically the enhanced effects of radiation and microgravity, and confirm the ability of the Orion capsule to withstand temperatures up to 3,000F (1650C) at re-entry.
The highlight for the crew will be on flight day six, when Orion will slingshot around the moon and pass between 4,000 and 6,000 miles from the lunar surface, providing opportunities to photograph the moon’s south pole where the next human landing will take place as early as 2028.
Nasa has published a comprehensive, day-by-day schedule of the Artemis II mission timeline here.
Key events
What to know about the spacecraft
The Artemis II launchpad stack comprises Nasa’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and the Orion crew capsule, a five-meter diameter craft with the interior volume similar to that of a small camper van.
The height of the rocket assembly is 322ft (98m), slightly higher than the Statue of Liberty (305ft), and London’s Elizabeth Tower, commonly known as Big Ben, at 316ft.
Four RS-25 engines, remnants from Nasa’s space shuttle program that ended in 2011, will provide almost nine million pounds of thrust at lift-off, making SLS the most powerful fully operational space rocket in history.
Two solid rocket boosters and the main tank fuel fall away after main engine cut-off and stage separation early in flight, and Orion will be powered to the moon by the European Service Module (ESM), built by Airbus for the European Space Agency.
The ESM will separate from Orion about 45 minutes before the crew’s splashdown in the Pacific ocean at the end of the 10-day mission. Unlike the solid rocket boosters at the start of the mission, which will be recovered, the ESM is designed to burn up on re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere.
The Artemis II crew will be arriving at the launchpad shortly after an emotional farewell with their families at the Neil A Armstrong operations and checkout building at Kennedy Space Center.
They posed for photographs and waved their goodbyes with heart signs and air kisses, not being allowed to hug their loved ones because of quarantine protocols.
Commander Reid Wiseman thanked the throngs who gathered to see them off. “It’s a great day for us. It’s a great day for this team,” Wiseman called out.
The astronauts boarded a silver astrovan for the journey to launchpad 39B, with military helicopters overhead and several security vehicles following at a close distance.
The next launch milestone will be the crew walking around and checking out their 322ft (98m) rocket ship from the ground before ascending in the elevator to the Orion crew capsule.
The Artemis II mission
Artemis II is the second flight, and first crewed mission, of the core component of Nasa’s Moon to Mars initiative, which aims to build a permanent, habitable lunar base as a prelude to eventual human flights to the red planet.
Assuming a successful launch on Wednesday, it will be a 10-day fly past of the moon, with no landing, in which the four astronauts will travel farther into space, just short of 253,000 miles, than any human beings before them.
The objectives are to test crucial spacecraft and life support systems, monitor extensively the astronauts’ health during a long-duration spaceflight, specifically the enhanced effects of radiation and microgravity, and confirm the ability of the Orion capsule to withstand temperatures up to 3,000F (1650C) at re-entry.
The highlight for the crew will be on flight day six, when Orion will slingshot around the moon and pass between 4,000 and 6,000 miles from the lunar surface, providing opportunities to photograph the moon’s south pole where the next human landing will take place as early as 2028.
Nasa has published a comprehensive, day-by-day schedule of the Artemis II mission timeline here.
First photos of Artemis II crew in their space suits
The first photos of the Artemis II crew on launch day are appearing on the news wires now. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and Nasa astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch were posing for pictures with their families before they’re expected to set off on a 10-day journey around the moon.
They were seen smiling and waving to the crowd ahead of the launch later expected later today:
Who is on the Artemis II crew
Three of Artemis II’s four crew members are Nasa astronauts and spaceflight veterans extended stays on the international space station (ISS).
Commander Reid Wiseman, 50, is a retired US Navy captain from Baltimore, Maryland. He was selected as an astronaut in 2009, spent six months on the ISS from May to November 2014, and is a former chief of Nasa’s astronaut office.
He has two daughters with his wife Carroll, who died in 2020 from cancer. He has said he is taking a notepad and pencil with him to space to record his thoughts during the mission.
Pilot Victor Glover, 49, will become the first astronaut of color to fly beyond lower Earth orbit. From Pomona, California, he joined the astronaut corps in 2013, and flew to the ISS on the maiden operational flight of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule in 2020.
He is married with four children. His callsign, Ike, is an acronym bestowed lovingly by colleagues for “I know everything”. Glover said he will carry his Bible, wedding ring, and book of quotations from Apollo 8 astronaut Rusty Schweickart.
Mission specialist Christina Koch (pronounced Cook), 47, is already a record holder for the longest single spaceflight by an American woman, 328 days on the ISS from March 2019 to February 2020.
Koch, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a married engineer who became an astronaut in 2013. She will become the first woman to travel to the moon. Her personal items in space will be handwritten notes from loved ones.
Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, 50, is the only non-American crew member, and has no previous spaceflight experience. A fighter pilot in the Royal Canadian air force, Hansen was recruited to the country’s astronaut training program in 2009.
Hansen is married with three children. Born in London, Ontario, he plans to take with him four moon-shaped pendants for his family, and maple syrup and cookies.
How to watch the Artemis II mission
Unlike the Apollo moon landings from 1969 to 1972, when millions of people had to gather around small TV sets to watch missions unfold in often grainy and ghosting black and white video, every moment of Artemis II will be a fully online, high-resolution multimedia experience.
The Guardian has a live feed at the top of this blog you can follow.
Nasa has countless webpages dedicated to every aspect of the flight from its homepage at nasa.gov, and the space agency has a significant presence on numerous social media platforms including X, YouTube, Instagram and Twitch.
Additionally, it runs a free, on-demand streaming channel, Nasa+, which will provide live coverage from before launch to after splashdown, including all press briefings. It also has a dedicated app for smart devices.
The Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman maintains a prominent social media presence, and has been posting prolifically ahead of the flight, although it remains to be seen how often he is able to update during the mission itself.
Also worth keeping an eye on is the X account of the new Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman.
How the launch is expected to unfold
A two-hour launch window for Artemis II opens at 6.24pm EST (11.24pm BST) after an almost four-hour fueling process. Nasa’s final weather briefing on Tuesday reported an 80% chance of favorable conditions for launch.
Mission managers will be watching closely data from launchpad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, as well as real-time and forecast weather information. Any last-minute technical issue or weather violation can cause a scrubbed launch attempt, or a delay, right up to T-0 (the moment the countdown clock reaches zero).
After lift-off, the 322ft (98m) rocket will take about 6.5 seconds to clear its tower, and accelerate quickly to 17,500mph and an altitude of about 531,000ft. Once there, main engine cut-off and core stage separation take place a little more than eight minutes into flight.
The real journey to the moon begins on flight day two, after several revolutions in Earth’s orbit, with the so-called translunar injection burn, the final major engine firing of the mission.
Welcome to our launch blog for Wednesday’s scheduled launch of Artemis II, Nasa’s first crewed lunar rocket in more than half a century that is set to lift-off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 6.24pm ET (11.24 BST).
I’m Richard Luscombe at the press site in Cape Canaveral with a close-up view of launchpad 39B, where the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew capsule will depart on their 10-day, 685,000-mile journey to the moon and back.
Hundreds of thousands of spectators will pack the beaches and causeways of Florida’s space coast to watch humans travel beyond lower Earth orbit for the first time since the final Apollo mission in December 1972.
Three Nasa astronauts, Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, join Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency on a mission that will slingshot around, but not land on the moon, before returning to a Pacific ocean splashdown.
Follow our coverage as we bring you the latest from the space center leading up to the opening of tonight’s two-hour launch window.
Read our preview of the mission here:
The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.
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Key events
In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.
Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.
“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “
News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.
“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.
“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”
Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.
Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.
The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.
The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.
An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.
In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.
For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:
“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.
“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”
Saturday’s match reports here.
The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.
“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against Cape Verde.
“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.
“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.
“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.
“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”
The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”
Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.
The teams – Lamine Yamal starts
Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.
Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.
Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?
Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.
Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat
The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.
The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.
Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.
“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.
Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.
Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.
A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.
Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP
Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?
Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.
Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.
“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”
A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.
“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”
We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.
The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.
Preamble
Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.
Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.
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