Human beings are about to return to the moon soon – but not as soon as we expected.
Yesterday (3), NASA announced it would delay the Artemis II mission that will send four astronauts on an orbit around the moon.
The delay is due to issues that happened during a critical fuel test of its enormous rocket.
Member of NASA’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) stands guard at night in front of the Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. pic.twitter.com/9GgfYmwVEo
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) February 4, 2026
NBC News reported:
“Mission managers were conducting an elaborate launch day walkthrough, known as a ‘wet dress rehearsal’, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida when engineers detected leaking hydrogen at the base of the Space Launch System rocket. NASA was forced to end the test a little after midnight ET, with around 5 minutes and 15 seconds remaining in the simulated launch countdown.
Shortly after 2 a.m. ET on Tuesday, NASA announced it would forgo February’s launch window for the Artemis II mission around the moon, which extended from Friday through Feb. 11, to allow teams to review data and conduct another wet dress rehearsal. It said it will now aim for March ‘as the earliest possible launch opportunity’.”
NASA has delayed the launch of Artemis II until at least March 6
A hydrogen leak was discovered during the wet rehearsal pic.twitter.com/oObByld9Dd
— Latest in space (@latestinspace) February 3, 2026
“The space agency has said there are available launch opportunities from March 6 through March 9, and on March 11, with additional dates in April, if needed.”
With the conclusion of the wet dress rehearsal today, we are moving off the February launch window and targeting March for the earliest possible launch of Artemis II.
With more than three years between SLS launches, we fully anticipated encountering challenges. That is precisely…
— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) February 3, 2026
“’As always, safety remains our top priority, for our astronauts, our workforce, our systems, and the public’, [Jared] Isaacman said on X, adding that NASA ‘will only launch when we believe we are ready to undertake this historic mission’.”
Live Science reported:
“The hydrogen leak and delay won’t come as a big surprise to those who have been following the Artemis Program. NASA’s flagship Space Launch System (SLS) rocket returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building twice in 2022 due to hydrogen leaks and other technical issues that arose during rehearsals for Artemis I, an uncrewed flight around the moon that eventually took off in November 2022.
[…] During a wet dress rehearsal, NASA’s crew demonstrates its ability to fill the rocket with more than 700,000 gallons (2.6 million liters) of cryogenic propellants — super-cold liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer. It’s a delicate process at the best of times, but this time NASA has also been grappling with an Arctic blast of cold weather.
[…] NASA’s staff were able to finish fueling the rocket’s tanks and began a countdown to a simulated launch. However, with around five minutes left on the clock, the ground launch sequencer (a software program that automates command and control procedures) halted the countdown because of a spike in the liquid hydrogen leak rate. The test was then scrubbed.”
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