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).
More on Artemis II
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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