Where is Artemis II right now? Here's when astronauts will reach moon

• The Artemis II mission launched from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on April 1.
• The four-person crew is currently orbiting Earth before beginning a four-day trip to the moon.
• This 10-day test mission will send astronauts farther from Earth than any humans in history.
• Artemis II is a critical step toward NASA's goal of returning astronauts to the lunar surface.

The Artemis II astronauts may have launched on a historic lunar mission, but they're not quite on their way toward the moon just yet.

In fact, it's likely that the four crew members just woke up from some much needed sleep the morning after finally getting off the ground from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on the long-awaited mission. For much of Thursday, April 2, the Orion capsule carrying the Artemis II crew will linger in Earth orbit before preparations begin to send the vehicle toward the moon.

Ahead, the four crew members – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover, and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen – will venture farther in space than anyone in human history. The mission will make Glover the first Black man to venture within the vicinity of the moon, while Koch will become the first woman and Hansen the first Canadian to do so.

Primarily considered a test mission, Artemis II could represent a giant step toward NASA's goal of returning astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo missions came to an end in 1972. The mission, expected to last about 10 days, is a critical demonstration that NASA's Orion crew capsule can handle a lunar mission with humans aboard before a landing is attempted as early as 2028.

Here's what to know about where the Artemis II astronauts are right now, and when they're expected to reach the vicinity of the moon.

Where is Artemis 2 right now?

The Artemis II astronauts are still orbiting Earth in NASA's Orion space capsule about 184 times higher than the International Space Station.

The latest update from NASA on the mission blog indicates that the crew members were due to be awakened around 7 a.m. ET Thursday, April 2, after getting about two hours of sleep.

Up next, the astronauts are to prepare Orion for a maneuver to raise the vehicle's perigee – an astronomical term referring to the point at which an object is nearest to Earth in its continuous orbit. The maneuver will set the Orion spacecraft up for operations to send it on a four-day trip toward the moon, known as a translunar injection burn.

With that objective complete, the astronauts are expected to resume sleeping around 9:40 a.m., according to NASA.

Artemis II flight path

The below graphic from NASA provides a visual of what the Artemis II flight path will look like.

Artemis II tracker

Want to follow the astronauts along the Artemis II lunar journey? NASA has an Artemis II tracker available online and on its mobile app that allows users to see where Orion is, how fast it's traveling and how far the spacecraft is from both the Earth and the moon.

The mobile version for smartphones even includes an augmented reality feature that allows users to move their phones to see where Orion is relative to Earth.

Where, when did Artemis II launch?

NASA's Artemis II mission got off the ground at 6:35 p.m. ET Wednesday, April 1, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The agency's towering 322-foot Space Launch System rocket provided the initial burst of power to propel the Orion spacecraft with the astronauts inside on its way. Launching atop 8.8 million pounds of thrust, the Space Launch System is regarded as the most powerful rocket NASA has ever launched – about 17% more powerful than the retired Saturn V of the iconic Apollo era.

What followed the launch was a series of complex steps within the first few hours of the mission to set the stage of the Artemis II crew to begin the 10-day journey around the moon in the Orion capsule.

That included both the SLS rocket's core stage and upper stage separately at different times from Orion, which also deployed its solar arrays to draw power from the sun while reaching a high-Earth orbit about 46,000 miles high.

When will Artemis II reach the moon?

If all goes according to schedule, Artemis II is due to reach the moon and make a historic lunar flyby Monday, April 6.

Swooping around the moon's far side, the astronauts aboard Orion are expected to travel farther from Earth than any humans ever have – surpassing the record of 248,655 miles set in 1970 during the infamous Apollo 13 mission. Whizzing by the moon up to 6,000 miles above the surface, the astronauts will also glimpse the celestial body's full disk, seeing sights that not even the Apollo astronauts witnessed.

How long is the Artemis II mission? Here's when they'll land on Earth

With the moon rendezvous complete, the astronauts will then make a four-day journey back to Earth, using our planet's gravity to naturally pull Orion back home, negating the need for propulsion or much fuel.

Once Orion blazes through Earth's atmosphere, a protective heat shield will be cast off to make way for parachutes to deploy and slow the vehicle down.

The capsule will then make a water landing likely Friday, April 10, in the Pacific Ocean near California, after which five orange airbags will inflate around the top of the spacecraft and flip the capsule into an upright position. After the landing, the crew would exit the vehicle onto a recovery vessel within about two hours.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected]