If you’re wondering where Artemis II is right now, you can track its historic journey to the moon in real time.
The Artemis II mission launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at on Wednesday, April 1, carrying four astronauts away from the Earth and towards the moon on a spacecraft called Orion.
While Artemis II will not land on the moon, it will pick up where the 1972 Apollo 17 mission left off and set the stage for the upcoming Artemis III test flight in 2027, the Artemis IV landing in 2028, and NASA’s plans to establish a lunar base.
Here’s what to know about tracking the spacecraft.
Tracking Artemis 2
NASA provides an online tracker available both on desktop and as a mobile app allows you to follow along with the Artemis II astronauts as they venture toward and around the moon aboard an Orion crew capsule.
The tracker, officially referred to as the “Artemis Real-time Orbit Website” (AROW,) allows users to not only see where the Orion spacecraft is and how fast it’s traveling, but to see in miles its distance from both the Earth and the moon.
The interface of the desktop website version includes key mission milestones and characteristics about the moon, including information about landing sites during the Apollo era. The mobile version for smartphones included in NASA’s app is similar, with the addition of an augmented reality feature that allows users to move their phones to see where Orion currently is relative to Earth.
The data is collected in real time by sensors on Orion and then sent to the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. That information will be constantly updated beginning about one minute after liftoff until Orion begins its re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere about 10 days later, according to USA TODAY.
Artemis II launch video
Watch the moment that Artemis II blasts off into space below:
USA TODAY contributed to this story.
Natassia Paloma may be reached at npaloma@gannett.com, @NatassiaPaloma on x; natassia_paloma on Instagram, and Natassia Paloma Thompson on Facebook.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Artemis 2 location tracker: How to track Artemis 2 voyage towards moon
Reporting by Natassia Paloma, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
