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NASA says it has successfully fuelled the Artemis II Space Launch System.
The second wet dress rehearsal for the upcoming Moon mission concluded on 19 February, with engineers seemingly having fixed a previous leak in the system that supplies the rocket with liquid hydrogen fuel.
Prior to the rehearsal, NASA said its engineers had replaced a ground support equipment filter that led to a liquid hydrogen leak during the first wet dress rehearsal in early February.
More on Artemis II
The nearly 50-hour countdown to the second Artemis II wet dress rehearsal began at 18:40 EST on 17 February 2026.
That meant the simulated launch time was 20:30 EST on 19 February.
During the test, teams loaded cryogenic propellant into the Space Launch System rocket and performed two 'terminal count' runs, practising clock recycles and scrub procedures.
The team also practised securing the Orion capsule that will house the astronauts during their mission, but this time without the astronauts onboard.
NASA says 6 March 2026 is now the earliest viable launch date for Artemis II.
3 February 2025
NASA's Artemis II crew have been released from quarantine and the mission's launch date pushed back to March 2026, following the conclusion of the wet dress rehearsal.
Concluding on Monday 2 February, the wet dress rehearsal saw ground teams run through launch procedures without the astronauts on board, as a practice for the launch day.
The wet dress rehearsal countdown began on 31 January and ran through to 2 February.
NASA says cold weather at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, where the Artemis II Space Launch System is located on its launch pad, caused a delay in operations.
During loading of the fuel into the rocket's tank, engineers noticed a leak in the system.
This leak caused an automatic halt of the practice countdown with just 5 minutes to go, NASA says.
Other issues included problems with a valve involved in the pressurisation of the Orion crew module hatch, which is where the astronauts will be enclosed during the journey.
Cold weather caused issues with cameras and other equipment, and NASA says it's still troubleshooting audio communications problems affecting the ground team.
NASA has concluded the wet dress rehearsal by pushing the launch of Artemis II back to March 2026, which means the astronaut crew have now been released from their quarantine in Houston, Texas, which they entered into on 21 January 2026.
That means they'll not be making their journey to Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday 2 February, as had been planned, and will re-enter quarantine two weeks from the next targeted launch window.
NASA ground teams will now review data from the wet dress rehearsal and look to set a new potential launch date.
2 February
NASA has announced the countdown has begun for the wet dress rehearsal of the Artemis II mission to the Moon.
On Friday 30 January 2026, the space agency announced it would target Monday 2 February for the wet dress rehearsal.
By Saturday 31 January, NASA said the countdown had begun at 20:13 EST (1 February, 01:13 UTC), marking 48 hours until the first wet dress rehearsal window.
The simulated launch window begins on 2 February at 21:00 EST (3 February at 02:00 UTC).
This new wet dress rehearsal launch window is slightly later than planned, having been pushed back by a few days as a result of cold weather and winds at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida, where the Artemis II Space Launch System is currently sitting on its launchpad.
This means the earliest potential launch dates for Artemis II have been pushed back, now beginning 8 February 2026. Previous potential launch dates of 6 or 7 February are now no longer possible, NASA says.
What the Artemis II wet dress rehearsal involves
The wet dress rehearsal for the Artemis II mission will see the launch team and other supporting teams run through the procedures that will be carried out during launch day proper.
It won't include the four astronauts themselves, but will instead involve the ground teams running through the procedures needed for ensuring a successful mission launch.
They'll run through operations like loading fuel – 'cryogenic liquid propellant' – into the Space Launch System (the rocket).
The teams will also conduct a launch countdown and test the ability to recycle the countdown clock, should the countdown need to be scrubbed and re-started on the day.
They'll drain the Space Launch System's tanks as a means to practise scrub procedures.
Once the tests have been completed, NASA will then look to set an official launch day for the Artemis II mission.
A journey to the Moon
Artemis II is the first mission to return humans to the Moon since the Apollo missions.
The four astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – won't land on the Moon, but will instead make a journey around the Moon and back.
Their Space Launch System rocket will launch their Orion capsule into Earth orbit and, once they're given the go-ahead, they'll begin their journey onwards to the Moon.
The Artemis II astronauts will travel beyond the Moon, further than any human being has ever travelled, then use the Moon's gravity to pull them round the far side of the Moon and back to Earth, for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
With the countdown to the wet dress rehearsal having officially started, we could now be less than a week away from seeing Artemis II lift off, beginning a new era in crewed spaceflight.
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