Artemis II launches to the Moon. Here's how to track it on your smartphone

NASA's Artemis II mission launched at 18:35 EDT (22:35 UTC) on April 1st, 2026, taking four astronauts around the Moon and back, returning humans to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo missions.

Excitement was building in the days leading up to lift-off as it felt, after a months of cancelled launches, like the planned April lift-off might actually happen.

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NASA's Artemis II on the launchpad. Credit: NASA/Sam Lott — Credit: NASA/Sam Lott

It did, and anyone on the east coast of America near Florida and southern Georgia was able to watch the rocket soaring through the sky.

Everyone else had to watch the lift-off live online via NASA's feed, which you can find below.

Now there's another way to keep up to date with the Artemis II mission in real time, and that's by tracking its journey around the Moon online or on your smartphone.

AROW and tracking Artemis II

NASA announced that Artemis II's journey around the Moon is available to track online and via a downloadable app called Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW).

NASA says AROW will show users exactly where the Artemis II Orion capsule carrying the four astronauts is, relative to the Moon.

The 10-day journey will see the Artemis II crew travel around the Moon and back, and data from the Orion capsule will be sent to Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston during the flight.

The AROW app will then provide that data for users, so the public can track the Artemis II mission's trip around the Moon.

Animation showing the flight path of the Artemis II mission. Credit: NASA, Kel Elkins (Science and Technology Corporation), Ernie Wright (USRA)

It will show the Artemis II crew's distance from Earth, their distance from the Moon and the mission duration.

The smartphone app will also use the smartphone's location and show the user where in the sky the Artemis II Orion capsule is at any moment in time, relative to Earth.

This could be useful, for example, for anyone wanting to track the Artemis II spacecraft with a telescope.

The spacecraft may be visible through a telescope shortly after launch, but will be beyond the range of visibility as it approaches the Moon and its apparent size shrinks.

But beyond telescope observations, the NASA tracker app is a way of keeping track of the Artemis II mission in real time, from launch, to the Moon to splashdown.

AROW is available via NASA's Track Artemis website and via the NASA app.