NASA has announced that its crewed Moon mission Artemis II will launch no earlier than March instead of February 8. The announcement on Tuesday followed the conclusion of a wet dress rehearsal during a 49-hour countdown between February 1-3, simulating launch day operations. Mission teams loaded the SLS rocket with cryogenic fuel and tested critical components before draining the propellant.
NASA completed a wet dress rehearsal for the Artemis II mission in the early morning hours on Feb. 3. To allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal, NASA will now target March as the the earliest possible launch opportunity for the Artemis II mission.… pic.twitter.com/jSnCUPLQb6
— NASA (@NASA) February 3, 2026
They also closed out the Orion spacecraft which braved the cold weather for several days after being rolled out to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on January 19.
NASA’s Artemis II rehearsal highlights troubles
NASA said in a statement, that mission teams met many of the planned objectives but encountered a few problems along the way. During the tanking operation, engineers noticed a liquid hydrogen leak in a supply line used to fill the cryogenic propellant into the rocket’s core stage.
While the leak put the operations behind in the countdown, teams were able to troubleshoot it and fill all tanks in both the core stage and interim cryogenic propulsion stage.
Another problem was encountered with a valve associated with Orion crew module hatch pressurization, which extended the closeout operations longer than planned. Besides, the cold weather had also affected cameras on the spacecraft so they would have required further attention. Dropouts of audio communication channels across ground teams also occurred, despite engineers troubleshooting it for the past few weeks.
“With March as the potential launch window, teams will fully review data from the test, mitigate each issue, and return to testing ahead of setting an official target launch date,” the statement read. This data will help in the second wet dress rehearsal in a few weeks.
Astronauts to get relief from quarantine
Artemis II astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen – who were quarantined at the Johnson Space Center in Houston since January 22 will be released and not travel to Kennedy Space Center as previously planned. NASA says they will enter quarantine again two weeks before the next launch date.
Backup astronauts Andre Douglas and Jenni Gibbons also accompanied the four core crew members in the quarantine; they will serve as last-minute replacements in case someone falls ill before launch day.
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