NASA has detailed the ground teams and leads who will run Artemis II, the first crewed test flight of the agency’s lunar campaign, now targeted for 2026. Operations span mission management, launch control, flight control, and recovery, coordinating across Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Johnson Space Center in Texas, and at-sea assets to support the 10-day lunar flyby and return.
Key operations appointments
- Mission Management Team: Amit Kshatriya (chair); Matt Ramsey (Artemis II mission manager and deputy chair)
- Launch Control (Kennedy): Charlie Blackwell-Thompson (Artemis launch director)
- Flight Control (Houston): Jeff Radigan (lead flight director); Judd Frieling (ascent); Rick Henfling (entry, descent, splashdown); Stan Love (lead CapCom)
- Landing and Recovery: Lili Villarreal (recovery lead)
Mission management and risk oversight
The mission management team, led by Amit Kshatriya, will convene two days before launch to review risks, verify readiness, and conduct formal decision polls at key milestones. Matt Ramsey oversees end-to-end preparedness ahead of that board, coordinating systems verification and test objectives maturity. If flight conditions diverge from pre-approved criteria or flight rules, the team will assess the situation and define the path forward.
Launch countdown at Kennedy
At Kennedy Space Center, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and the launch control team will manage the two-day countdown, including ground systems configuration, troubleshooting, propellant loading, and launch commit criteria for Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion. The team will monitor all launch-critical systems through liftoff and initial ascent.
Flight control in Houston
From booster ignition through splashdown, Mission Control in Houston will run 24/7 shift operations. Jeff Radigan serves as lead flight director, responsible for mission timelines, flight rules, procedures, and integrated simulations. On launch day, Judd Frieling will direct ascent, tracking SLS core stage performance, solid rocket boosters, and propulsion through Orion’s separation from the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. For return, Rick Henfling will lead entry and recovery handover, overseeing Orion’s atmospheric reentry near 25,000 mph, parachute deployment to about 20 mph, weather assessments, and post-splashdown safing. Throughout, Stan Love acts as lead capsule communicator (CapCom), providing a single, clear voice to the crew.
Landing and recovery operations
Lili Villarreal will lead landing and recovery. The team will deploy on a Department of Defense vessel from San Diego, pre-positioning near the splashdown zone days in advance. Working with the U.S. Navy and other Department of Defense elements, sea, air, and onshore teams will extract the astronauts and secure the Orion crew module. Villarreal holds decision authority during recovery operations.
Program context and next steps
Artemis II is designed to validate integrated performance of SLS, Orion, ground systems, and mission operations with crew, serving as a system-level check before attempting a lunar South Pole landing on Artemis III. The clarified leadership roles align processes across risk management, countdown execution, in-space operations, and recovery to reduce operational uncertainty ahead of subsequent missions in the Moon to Mars campaign.
Full details are available from NASA: Who Runs Artemis II: NASA Names Ops Leads for Launch, Flight, and Recovery.
