Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen waves from his car before flying out of Ellington Airport for Cape Canaveral, Florida, on March 27, 2026.
The astronauts heading to the moon on the Artemis II mission left Houston on Friday morning to fly to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for a launch as soon as April 1.
Each of the four crew members — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — as well as their two backup crew members, Andre Douglas and Jenni Gibbons, left from Ellington Airport.
Lined up outside the airport on Friday morning were employees from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, celebrating the significant step toward launching the historic Artemis II mission.
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“We do feel like it’s us, and the crew would be the first to tell you that,” said Steve Koerner, deputy director of the Johnson Space Center. “This is a huge team, great to be able to all be a part of this.”
Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
NASA’s Christina Koch waves from her car before flying out of Ellington Airport for Cape Canaveral, Florida, on March 27, 2026.
NASA is moving forward with a launch in April after previously targeting dates in February and March as technical issues forced the mission to be delayed.
The mission management team is expected to meet on Monday, likely to make the decision to begin a 48-hour countdown to launch the rocket and spacecraft on April 1. NASA does not plan to conduct another dress rehearsal for the launch prior to the actual launch.
Artemis II is the first crewed mission to the moon in more than 50 years. Four astronauts plan to orbit around the Earth before venturing to the moon, flying by and heading back to Earth. Artemis II is a test mission to ensure NASA’s equipment is capable of such a mission. NASA expects to land a crew on the moon by the Artemis IV mission, estimated for 2028.
The crew members have been in a quarantine in Houston and will remain in quarantine in Florida until the mission launches in order to preserve their health prior to launch. If the mission does not launch on April 1, NASA will have other opportunities to launch through April 6.