NASA’s Artemis 2 mission will send the first crewed spacecraft back to the Moon in over 50 years. As the Orion spacecraft makes its 10-day journey to the Moon and back, a group of volunteers on the ground will help track the crewed capsule on its journey into deep space using all kinds of equipment.
NASA has selected 34 global volunteers to passively track Orion during the upcoming Artemis 2 mission, which is slated for launch as early as February 6. The list includes the Canadian Space Agency, commercial ventures such as Intuitive Machines and ViaSat, and academic institutions, as well as amateur astronomers and radio organizations.
All eyes on Orion
During Orion’s flight to the Moon, NASA will use its Near Space Network and Deep Space Network to track and communicate with the spacecraft. In August 2025, NASA put out a call for volunteers with ground station capabilities to help track the Artemis 2 mission.
The volunteers are asked to passively track radio waves transmitted by Orion during its approximately 10-day journey. They will then submit their data to NASA for analysis to help the agency better assess the broader aerospace community’s tracking capabilities and figure out ways to improve future Moon and Mars mission support.
“By inviting external organizations to demonstrate their capabilities during a human spaceflight mission, we’re strengthening the marketplace we’ll rely on as we explore farther into the solar system,” Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s SCaN (Space Communication and Navigation program), said in a statement. “This isn’t about tracking one mission, but about building a resilient, public-private ecosystem that will support the Golden Age of innovation and exploration.”
To the Moon
The list of participants ready to watch Orion journey to the Moon and back includes amateur astronomer and citizen scientist Scott Tilley, who helped find a lost NASA satellite in 2018 after it had been lost for nearly 12 years.
Testing systems for #Artemis2 data collection by decoding KPLO in lunar orbit.
I’ll be using the Ettus B200 referenced with my Stanford Research PRS10 Rb standard which is disciplined with a Bodnar LPE-1420 for the Artemis Doppler gather mission. 🧵⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Jj7965ei45
— Scott Tilley 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 (@coastal8049) January 24, 2026
Other volunteers include the Amateur Radio Exploration Ground Station Consortium in Towson, Maryland, the Deep Space Exploration Society in Kiowa County, Colorado, and AMSAT Argentina.
The Orion spacecraft will orbit Earth several times before embarking on a four-day journey to the Moon, flying around Earth’s natural satellite at a minimum distance of 4,300 miles (about 6,900 km) before returning home.
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