NASA targets March 6 for Artemis II after passing key SLS fueling rehearsal
Saturday, February 21st 2026 – 04:27 UTC
Artemis II will be the first crewed flight of NASA’s Artemis program and the first US crewed mission toward the Moon since the Apollo era
NASA said on Friday it is targeting March 6 as the earliest launch date for Artemis II, the mission that will send four astronauts on a flight around the Moon and back, after completing a second full countdown-and-fueling rehearsal of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
The test — known as a wet dress rehearsal — ran for nearly 50 hours and included loading the rocket with about 730,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants, without the hydrogen leaks that hindered an earlier attempt. The countdown ended as planned at T-29 seconds, stopping short of engine ignition.
In the final phase, teams practiced a recycle of the terminal count and worked through a booster avionics voltage anomaly, which was addressed without ending the rehearsal early, according to NASA’s live log of the operation.
NASA cautioned that work still ahead could push the date within the March launch window, including testing the flight termination system and holding the Flight Readiness Review — the agency’s top-to-bottom final check of hardware and procedures. “I felt like last night was a big step in us earning our right to fly… very proud of the team,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said.
Artemis II will be the first crewed flight of NASA’s Artemis program and the first US crewed mission toward the Moon since the Apollo era. The mission will fly Orion from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with Reid Wiseman as commander, Victor Glover as pilot, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
NASA’s plan calls for a roughly 10-day lunar fly-around to validate spacecraft systems and deep-space operations — a precursor step toward Artemis III, the mission intended to return astronauts to the lunar surface in the coming years.