NASA just got the Orion spacecraft that will fly astronauts around the moon on Artemis 2 in 2026

The next spacecraft to fly humans around the moon has been delivered to the only space agency on Earth to ever successfully fly astronauts to our nearest celestial neighbor.

Orion, the capsule that will carry the Artemis 2 astronauts on a mission around the moon and back, has been officially handed over to NASA. The agency took possession of Orion from the spacecraft’s main contractor, Lockheed Martin, on Thursday (May 1), according to a statement from the company.

Now, Orion will be transported to the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. It will undergo final tests and processing ahead of incorporation with the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will send the spacecraft and its crew into orbit. SLS is currently being stacked inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at KSC, which will the last stop for both the rocket and Orion before rolling out to the launch pad. SLS’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) was transported to the VAB on April 15, NASA said in a post last month.

In addition to validating Orion’s development tests and checkouts, Lockheed Martin was responsible for upgrading the life support and other systems essential to operate the capsule with a crew aboard, including audio communications, an exercise machine and the spacecraft’s launch abort system.

Artemis 2 is scheduled to launch in early 2026. It will fly NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a free return trajectory aboard Orion. Their mission will fly them out of Earth orbit toward the moon, which Orion will slingshot around and then come back home.

“The Orion spacecraft completion for Artemis 2 is a major step forward in our nation’s efforts to develop a long-term lunar presence,” Kirk Shireman, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of Human Space Exploration, said in the statement.

As its name suggests, Artemis 2 will be the second mission of the Artemis program, which aims to establish a permanent outpost on the moon as a springboard toward a crewed mission to Mars. Artemis 1 successfully sent an uncrewed Orion to lunar orbit and back in late 2022. NASA is currently targeting 2027 for the launch of Artemis 3, which will be the first mission to land astronauts on the moon since 1972.

Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 had been expected to launch this year and next, respectively, but damage to Orion’s heat shield during atmospheric entry at the end of Artemis 1 forced NASA to delay each by more than a year.