Study links Artemis II launch and burns to continent-wide ionosphere disturbances

The study, by researchers at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, analyzed data from high-precision, fixed ground-based GPS receivers used by U.S. scientific institutions to measure tiny motions of tectonic plates. From signal travel times, the team reconstructed how the rocket's passage changed free-electron concentrations in the ionosphere, the charged layer above 30 miles (50 kilometers). The study describes measured and potential errors, not a GPS outage or a documented device failure.

What the study measured

Space.com reported that the study, published as a preprint in Geophysical Research Letters, tied disturbances to three Artemis II events: the launch from Kennedy Space Center on 1 April 2026, the Apogee Raise Maneuver at 0023 UT on 2 April, and the Trans-Lunar Injection burn at 2349 UT on 2 April. The ARM came about two hours after launch; TLI followed nearly a day later. The study identifies three disturbances, while Space.com describes two holes, one from the 212-foot (65-meter) core stage and one from two upper-stage burns.

The affected zone stretched about 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) east to west across North America. The ARM disturbance alone spread across roughly 50 degrees of longitude. A disturbance that wide does not sit over one launch pad; it sits over a large share of the continent's receivers. Researchers built their maps from GNSS observations at about 3,500 ground stations across the Americas. For ARM and TLI, reported disturbance amplitudes ran from roughly 2.5 to 3.7 TECU, a measure of free electrons along a signal path.

Why the upper-stage burns stood out

A launch drives pressure waves up through the lower atmosphere; an in-space burn releases exhaust directly into plasma at altitude. The upper-stage burns took place inside the ionosphere at around 115 miles (185 kilometers), more than an hour after liftoff, and Space.com reported they left the more prominent mark. The launch produced acoustic and gravity waves moving at 600 to 1,500 meters per second and lasting 15 to 20 minutes.

Space.com reported the Artemis II effect was larger than any recorded from earlier rocket launches and up to ten times more intense than disturbances seen after SpaceX Starship test launches. Starship has roughly twice the SLS liftoff thrust, Space.com noted.

The study said: "This is the first time a single space mission produced three instances of ionospheric disturbances over the same region during successive orbit maneuvers," Starlust.org reported. The mechanisms differ, so the three signatures are not interchangeable.

What it means for navigation

GPS and other constellations orbit at around 12,550 miles (20,200 kilometers), far above the ionosphere, so their timing signals must pass through the disturbed layer to reach receivers. Charles Lin, an earth science professor at National Cheng Kung University and a co-author, told Space.com that "a positioning error of a couple of meters is enough to cause an autonomous car to change lanes." He said the same applies to drone positioning.

For builders of autonomous vehicles and drone operators, the practical question is whether a receiver would notice. The study's answer is that it might, briefly and locally.

What comes next

Artemis II lifted off on 1 April 2026 and splashed down on 10 April with four astronauts aboard. It returned humans to lunar space for the first time in more than fifty years. Lin told Space.com that "these space weather effects will become much more significant" as more missions head to the Moon and Mars. Starlust.org reported that NASA is working toward Artemis IV and a sustained lunar presence, and that coming launches could produce the same disturbances.