Artemis II’s crew of four includes Nasa’s commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch. A second mission specialist, Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, will also be on board.
The mission involves the first crewed flight of SLS and Orion.
Once they are safely in orbit, the astronauts will test how the Orion spacecraft handles. This will involve manually flying the capsule in Earth orbit to practise steering and lining up the spacecraft for future Moon landings.
They will then head out to a point thousands of kilometres beyond the Moon to check Orion’s life‑support, propulsion, power and navigation systems.
The crew will also act as medical test subjects, sending back data and imagery from deep space.
They will work in a small cabin in weightlessness. Radiation levels will be higher than on the International Space Station, which is in low‑Earth orbit, but still safe.
On return to Earth, the astronauts will experience a bumpy return through the atmosphere and a splashdown off the west coast of the US, in the Pacific.