Hacker News

by Ryan Harman

NASA targets Artemis II crewed moon mission for April 1 launch (npr.org)

55 points by Brajeshwar 4 hours ago

dmix 2 hours ago

Then we just have to see if SpaceX can pull off orbital refueling at scale.

Starship 3 first launch will be in April as well https://www.caller.com/story/news/local/2026/03/11/spacex-st...

proee 38 minutes ago

Imagine riding in a vehicle that has been tested zero times. I would be terrified. Best of luck to the team.

riffic 18 minutes ago

Have the vehicles not been tested? It seems a strange premise to make.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_I

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_Flight_Test-1

ta9000 13 minutes ago

It’s kind of wild that I never heard about this. Space exploration really has dropped off the map news/media wise.

brcmthrowaway an hour ago

Lunar surface?

bhhaskin an hour ago

Fly-by

abeppu 3 hours ago

April 1 is an in interesting choice for a big event that will be news if it goes well and bigger news if it goes badly

jedberg 3 hours ago

They don't really have a choice. The launch window is small and they either make it or they don't.

philipwhiuk 2 hours ago

There is a window on the 2nd. But you don't aim for the second half of the launch period and hope you make it, you aim for the start to allow time to resolve issues without waiting for the next window (which is the end of the month).

echelon 2 hours ago

What factors are there for the lunar launch window?

It can't be weather, here, right? That's too far ahead.

Is it perigee?

If this window is missed, when is the next one?

jedberg 2 hours ago

ohyoutravel 2 hours ago

Well at least there’s a 50% probability of success

hypeatei 2 hours ago

"April fools, your space shuttle just disintegrated!"

mikkupikku 3 hours ago

Can't they just schedule it for March 32nd?

AverageSavage 2 hours ago

They are snip hunting that day.

la3lma 2 hours ago

Surely they are joking?

pfdietz 2 hours ago

The whole program is a joke.

AverageSavage 2 hours ago

Operation: Sike! is a go! ;)

edgyquant 3 hours ago

“As early as April 1” is a weird way to describe something that is two months behind schedule

NitpickLawyer 3 hours ago

That's probably a "layman's terms" translation of a more technical term NET April 1, which would be "Not Earlier Than" and is widely used in the industry.

StableAlkyne 3 hours ago

Being a few months behind schedule is forgivable for human space flight.

If a SpaceX Falcon blows up on the pad, that's one thing. It's expensive but they accept that risk to move faster. At least they gain knowledge of what failed, to do better next time.

You can't apply that mentality once a human is piloting it however. That's how you get Columbia, Challenger, or Apollo 1.

philipwhiuk 2 hours ago

> If a SpaceX Falcon blows up on the pad, that's one thing. It's expensive but they accept that risk to move faster. At least they gain knowledge of what failed, to do better next time.

Assuming it's not carrying a SpaceX Crew Dragon with crew onboard ;)

Also, it's a bit of a dated metaphor. Falcon 9 is by most accounts, now the most reliable rocket in history and is pretty design-locked. The modern metaphor is SpaceX Starship :)

bcraven 2 hours ago

As it's currently March, April seems very close to me. I didn't know there was a moon flight planned so this is a great headline to me.

bombcar 2 hours ago

I didn't even know we were within years of putting people around the moon, so I was surprised!

throwawaymobule an hour ago

Scott Manley does a roundup video every two or so weeks called 'deep space updates' that I suggest watching.

The start is all rocket launches, which gives a good idea of how much is happening.

dylan604 2 hours ago

Seeing how the last test at the beginning of Feb found hydrogen leaks, it does sound very early to me

tekla 2 hours ago

Why? They fixed it.

dylan604 an hour ago

Insanity 3 hours ago

Messaging is everything!

u1hcw9nx 3 hours ago

Six day launch window April 1-6.