Lift-off: Nasa’s Artemis II makes successful launch

Alva Solomon

Created: Apr 02, 2026 07:37 AM (Updated: Apr 02, 2026 11:16 AM)

All hands on deck: Nasa engineers monitor the progress of the Artemis II mission to the moon at the space agency’s tracking station at Cooper’s Island (Photograph by Blaire Simmons)

Cheers erupted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration tracking station at Cooper’s Island when the space agency’s Artemis IItest flight lifted off for the Moon from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida yesterday evening.

The mission — Nasa’s first human trip to the Moon’s orbit in 54 years since the 1972 Apollo mission — took off with four crew members on board the Orion spacecraft mounted on a rocket at about 7.35pm Bermuda time.

The successful launch is the beginning of a ten-day mission for Nasa astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.

Nasa said after reaching space, the Orion spacecraft had deployed its solar array wings, which enabled it to receive energy from the Sun.

David Morgan, the Deputy Governor, Antoinette Hurtado, the US Consul-General, Alexa Lightbourne, the Minister of Home Affairs and Chief Justice Larry Mussenden were among guests who witnessed the mission launch from the tracking station on Cooper’s Island.

Ms Hurtado said the mission was of high importance for Nasa and Bermuda.

Antoinette Hurtado, the US Consul-General, was on hand to witness the mission launch (Photograph by Alva Solomon)

She told the Royal Gazette: “What we are seeing tonight really is history in the making and it really is the next step in advancement in space exploration and trying to take humans back to the moon.

“And the Bermuda tracking station role in that is really significant...Bermuda has been supportive of Nasa’s space exploration for many decades going back to the 1960s with Project Mercury.”

She said Nasa crews would visit the facility regularly for maintenance and she pointed out that it was not a 24/7 operation.

Nasa engineers monitor the progress of the Artemis II mission to the moon at the agency’s tracking station at Cooper’s Island (Photograph by Blaire Simmons)

Nasa engineers and technicians will be on site for the duration of the ten-day flight by the Orion spacecraft, she added.

Live coverage of the launch will continue daily on YouTube, Nasa said.

The four astronauts will orbit the Moon at a much higher altitude — between 4,000 and 6,000 miles from the moon’s surface — than the Apollo missions, which took place between 1968 and 1972.

A miniature model of the Orion spacecraft mounted on a rocket at Nasa’s tracking station at Cooper’s Island (Photograph by Blaire Simmons)

Last night, about 49 minutes into the flight, Nasa said the rocket’s upper stage had fired to put the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit around Earth.

The crew is expected to make a multi-hour lunar flyby of the Moon on April 6 where they will take photographs and provide observations of its surface as the first people to lay eyes on some areas of its far side.

Following a successful lunar flyby, the astronauts will return to Earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean.