We have another Artemis II wet dress rehearsal (WDR) heading our way. NASA has planned to conduct the 50-hour-long exercise on February 18 after making necessary changes to avoid any fuelling trouble this time. The rehearsal will begin at 5:10 am IST [6:40 pm EST, Feb 17] and end at the simulated launch time at 6 am IST on February 20 [8:30 pm, Feb 19].
Similar to the first rehearsal in early January, NASA will fill the SLS rocket with propellant, conduct a full launch countdown and safely drain the propellant.
We’re targeting Thursday, Feb. 19, as the tanking day for the second fueling test ahead of our Artemis II test flight around the Moon. A formal launch date will not be set until after a successful rehearsal and data reviews. Details: https://t.co/QWuBLYzKdk pic.twitter.com/eZo8RgI0AL
— NASA (@NASA) February 16, 2026
“The wet dress rehearsal will run the launch team as well as supporting teams through a full range of operations, including loading cryogenic liquid propellant into the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s tanks, conducting a launch countdown, demonstrating the ability to recycle the countdown clock, and draining the tanks to practice scrub procedures,” NASA said in a statement.
Will NASA overcome the hurdle?
After encountering some issues mainly liquid hydrogen leakage during tanking operations, the engineers have worked relentlessly to fix the supply line. Besides, they also faced reduced propellant flow in the supply line during a ‘confidence test’ on February 12 – it has now been solved by replacing a filter that was believed to have dropped the flow rate.
During WDR 2, the mission team will execute a detailed countdown sequence, stopping multiple times before reaching T-0. They will conduct two runs of the terminal count (last ten minutes), pause at T-1 minute and 30 seconds for up to three minutes, then resume until T-33 seconds. They will again recycle the clock to T-10 minutes for a second terminal countdown and will end the sequence just inside T-30 seconds.
All this hassle is to launch Artemis II, the first crewed lunar mission since 1972. Four astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen – will launch atop the SLS rocket and return after flying around the Moon in the Orion spacecraft. The earliest available launch opportunity is March 6 followed by March 7,8,9 and 11.
NASA has been clear that it will not announce a formal launch date until the WDRs are fully successful and data reviews confirm the rocket is ready for launch.
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