NASA prepares to launch first manned moon rocket in 50 years

NASA has moved the Space Launch System to the pad at Kennedy Space Center ahead of Artemis II, a planned 10-day crewed lunar flyby with four astronauts; final tests, including a wet dress rehearsal, and a choice from February–April launch windows remain before liftoff.

NASA has placed the Space Launch System on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center as teams prepare for Artemis II, the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years. The mission is scheduled as a roughly 10-day crewed flyby carrying Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Artemis II is described by NASA leaders as a test flight to demonstrate spacecraft systems, crew operations, and emergency procedures ahead of future lunar surface missions. Several systems checks and rehearsals remain, and an exact launch date has not yet been selected. What is known: - The rocket on the pad is NASA's Space Launch System, fueled with liquid oxygen and hydrogen and supported by two solid rocket boosters. - The Artemis II crew will fly aboard the Orion spacecraft, with a service module provided by the European Space Agency. - Launch opportunities have been identified in early February, early March, and early April, with specific dates listed by NASA within those windows. - Key prelaunch activities include systems integration testing and a wet dress rehearsal that will load and unload fuel and exercise launch-day procedures; issues found in rehearsal (for example, a fuel leak) must be addressed. - Flight requirements include alignment of Earth and Moon positions, a free-return trajectory for the lunar flyby, and a constraint that the service module cannot remain in darkness for more than 90 minutes. - Mission operations planned for the flight include manual proximity demonstrations (with Victor Glover taking manual control), testing of communications and a laser array, human science experiments, and observations of the Moon's far side. Summary: Artemis II is intended as a test of NASA's crewed deep-space systems and operations and will follow a series of prelaunch checks and rehearsals before a launch date is chosen. The next scheduled steps include the remaining systems integration work and a wet dress rehearsal, with the exact launch opportunity to be selected from the February through April windows.