Artemis II Launch Day

If all goes well today, the Artemis II mission to return astronauts to the moon will lift off just before 6:30 pm ET. Astronauts have already starting suiting up.

🚨🚨BREAKING: ARTEMIS II CREW SUITS UP AHEAD OF LAUNCH 👩‍🚀👨‍🚀🚀 pic.twitter.com/mTiiWQgyLu

— America Reports (@AmericaRpts) April 1, 2026

Why are the space suits orange? I’m glad you asked.

Officially called the Orion Crew Survival System, NASA says the spacesuits can help keep astronauts alive if they lose cabin pressure.

“Astronauts could survive inside the suit for up to six days as they make their way back to Earth,” the space agency explains on its website.

The suits are also equipped with survival gear should they have to exit the spacecraft after splashdown…

And the reason they’re neon orange? “To make crew members easily visible in the ocean,” NASA says.

Here’s a better view of the suits.

Artemis II Crew’s Suits
The Orion Crew Survival System suits that Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) will wear on the Artemis II test flight are… pic.twitter.com/1MQ814BVb9

— Cerebral Overload (@CbrOvld) March 30, 2026

Meanwhile, the launch vehicle was loaded with liquid propellant. 

Just after 7:30 a.m. ET, the call to go for fueling came from mission managers. Right now, the core stage is in fast fill mode, and after that, NASA will transition into topping mode, in which its teams get the tanks to 100% full. Crews will keep topping the rocket’s tanks off the whole day. 

The tanks are already full as I write this so now they are just topping it off as some of it boils off. The liquid hydrogen in these tanks is kept at -423 degrees Fahrenheit. There are four tanks in all, one for liquid hydrogen and one for liquid oxygen in each of the rocket’s two stages. Here’s a graphic used by NASA to show the location and status of the tanks.

With the exception of the ICPS LH2 tank, all other fuel tanks on the Artemis II rocket are now fully loaded! pic.twitter.com/MnnlSJyJgL

— Rich Par (@AstroPnoy) February 2, 2026

As much as this launch is about scientific progress, there are certain traditions that are still observed. Once in their suits, the astronauts play a card game to make sure all of the bad luck is left on the ground.

Artemis II crew is playing the traditional card game ahead of launch! This game consists in playing cards until the commander loses, at which point it is believed that all bad luck has been left on the ground. https://t.co/Run2EC9Hx3 pic.twitter.com/ob43eyRkNJ

— The Weekly Spaceman (@TWSsocials) April 1, 2026

This is really a thing that has been around for a while, though it’s not clear (to me at least) when it began.

A long-held spaceflight tradition, NASA crews play cards before leaving the crew quarters ahead of launch until the commander loses. It is hoped that by losing, the commander burns off all his or her bad luck, thereby clearing the mission for only good luck.

They showed a bit of the actual game in the NASA pre-launch video and it looks like this crew is actually playing it the opposite way, i.e. it’s high card draw and each round continues until all of the astronauts win. The narrator calls this “going out on a high note” as opposed to the other version in which you lose in order to leave your back luck behind. In today’s game Commander Reid Wiseman went out first with an Ace. Anyway, they are preserving the tradition even if superstition isn’t part of it.

The astronauts just went out to meet the press before taking a shuttle to the launch pad.

The Artemis II astronauts, now suited up for launch, are headed to the launch pad.

The crew includes NASA astronauts @Astro_Reid, @AstroVicGlover, and @Astro_Christina, and @CSA_ASC astronaut @Astro_Jeremy. pic.twitter.com/G8mGsJPgcQ

— NASA (@NASA) April 1, 2026

I’ll update this post over the next four hours leading up to the launch if anything good (or bad) happens. But for now, here’s the NASA livestream.

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