Overview
- Researchers report that the April 1, 2026 Artemis II launch produced two roughly 5,000 km ionospheric disturbances that aligned with distinct flight events during the mission.
- The team attributes the first major disturbance to the SLS core‑stage ascent and the larger disturbances to subsequent upper‑stage burns, including an apogee raise and the trans‑lunar injection.
- Scientists detected the effects using a network of high‑precision ground GNSS receivers that measure total electron content and estimated the signal delays could cause positioning errors of several metres.
- The result appears in a Geophysical Research Letters preprint and is not yet peer reviewed, and investigators say there are no confirmed, widespread GPS outages tied to the launch so far.
- Authors and independent researchers warn that repeated powerful orbital burns could pose growing risks to self‑driving cars, drones and other systems that need metre‑level accuracy and recommend follow‑up monitoring, modelling and receiver safeguards.