The Artemis II mission patch appears in the center screen of the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on April 1, 2026, shortly before the mission launched to the Moon. A graphical representation of the antennas of the agency’s Deep Space Network (DSN), left, indicates which antennas are currently sending and receiving data, highlighted in white.
Shortly after liftoff at 6:35 p.m. EDT from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, initial Artemis II communications were handled by the agency’s Near Space Network. Then, the DSN acquired signal, marking the first time in over 50 years that the network would be communicating with a crewed spacecraft traveling through deep space.
The Space Flight Operations Facility operates the DSN, which comprises three complexes in Goldstone, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia. Each complex consists of several radio frequency antennas that communicate with dozens of spacecraft exploring the solar system in addition to the Artemis II mission.
The DSN is managed by JPL for the agency’s Space Communications and Navigation program, which is located at NASA Headquarters within the Space Operations Mission Directorate. The DSN allows missions to track, send commands to, and receive scientific data from faraway spacecraft. JPL is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, for NASA.
For more information about Artemis II, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/
