NASA has postponed its historic Artemis II moon mission to March 2026 after identifying technical issues during a critical launch rehearsal. The delay follows a 49-hour wet dress rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center, where engineers detected a liquid hydrogen leak in the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s fueling process.
The mission, originally targeting a February 2026 launch, will now see its earliest opportunity in March. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman emphasized the necessity of rigorous testing, stating, ‘We fully anticipated challenges after three years between SLS launches.’
Artemis II aims to send four astronauts—three from the U.S. and one from Canada—on a 10-day journey around the moon, marking humanity’s farthest crewed spaceflight and the first lunar mission since Apollo. The crew includes Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen.
This mission paves the way for Artemis III, scheduled for 2028, which plans to land astronauts on the lunar surface using SpaceX’s Starship as a lander. Technical setbacks highlight the complexities of reviving deep-space exploration amid evolving aerospace technologies.
