Moonbound Artemis II astronauts give Orion capsule a name

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Sep 26, 2025

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The four astronauts set to climb aboard the first Orion spacecraft to fly humans have already given it a name.

In a press conference this week from Houston, Artemis II commander and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman revealed their minibus-sized capsule has been officially named Integrity.

He’ll join fellow NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on what is planned to be a 10-day mission to fly out past the moon and back, launching as early as Feb. 5, 2026.

“A couple months ago, we thought, as a crew, we need to name this spacecraft. We need to have a name for the Orion spacecraft that we’re going to ride this magical mission on,” he said Wednesday. “And so we got the four of us together and our backups, Jenny Gibbons from the Canadian Space Agency and Andre Douglas from NASA, and we went over to the quarantine facility here, and we basically locked ourselves in there until we came up with a name.”

Wiseman said the name was whittled down from a large list.

“We all had our little pet names. And as we worked our way through this, we went big to small, which this crew does so well,” Wiseman said. “And we started with the NASA core values. And then we looked at the Canadian Space Agency core values. And then we talked about what matters to us most in our core values.”

Naming the spacecraft before it gets to space falls in line with the Space Shuttle Program as its orbiters were all named ahead of launch. That’s different than the name reveals since 2020 of the five Crew Dragon capsules in SpaceX’s fleet, which were only announced after reaching orbit.

Wiseman said they all wanted Artemis II to be a success for the follow-up mission, Artemis III, that seeks to return humans to the moon’s surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

But they all wanted to also embrace peace and home for all humankind.

“That is what we really want. And so we are bringing together the world. We are bringing together an amazing workforce, and they are bringing together an amazing vehicle,” he said. “And at the end of all that, when you squeeze it all down, it created magic. So we’re going to fly around the moon in the spacecraft Integrity.”

Artemis II will simply be flying out past the moon without entering its orbit before returning to Earth in what will be the real test of the spacecraft’s heat shield, which endured major damage on the uncrewed Artemis I test flight.

The return flight on Artemis I had the capsule dipping in and out of the atmosphere, slowing down from around 25,000 mph and the heat shield enduring temperatures near 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s roughly 40% faster than returns made by capsules like SpaceX’s Crew Dragon returning from low-Earth orbit.

The result was more than 100 places on the heat shield where what’s known as the char layer ended up “cracking and breaking off the spacecraft in fragments,” according to a 2024 report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General.

While the Artemis III capsule will have a replacement heat shield constructed, NASA managers and officials from Orion’s primary contractor, Lockheed Martin, came up with a reentry plan that will avoid the method used during Artemis I, which they say should remove the dangers of overheating and potential damage.

Wiseman acknowledged NASA’s announcement that the launch could come as early as February, but tempered that expectation and there’s no guarantee they will actually fly to the moon unless everything checks out.

“We just do not anchor on dates. We are going to launch when this vehicle is ready, when this team is ready, and we are going to go execute this mission to the best of our abilities,” he said.

The mission plan calls for Orion to orbit Earth first, to keep it closer to home in case things like the life-support system aren’t working optimally.

“When we get off the planet, we might come right back home. We might spend three or four days around Earth. We might go to the moon,” he said. That’s where we want to go, but it is a test mission, and we are ready for every scenario.”

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