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Artemis 2 moon launch now set for March 6


A rocketship stands on a platform under a deep blue sky.
Artemis 2 stands poised on the launchpad ahead of its possible March 6, 2026, launch. Soon, Artemis will become the first mission in more than half a century to carry people around the moon, before returning to Earth. Image via NASA/ Ben Smegelsky.

Artemis 2 astronauts quarantine ahead of March 6 launch

On February 20, 2026, NASA said the four Artemis 2 astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen – had entered quarantine in Houston in preparation for their upcoming moon launch. They’ll soon become the first humans to fly around the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The launch opportunity will come on March 6. These two weeks of quarantine are meant to limit the exposure they have to germs, so they can be in good health during their expedition. The crew will fly to Kennedy Space Center five days before the launch.

Soon, possibly on March 6, Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen will embark on their 10-day journey. They’ll fly past the moon on a “free-return trajectory,” venturing further into space than any humans have traveled since the Apollo era.

On February 19, NASA completed a wet dress rehearsal for this momentous event. During this rehearsal, technicians oversaw the systems, paying particular attention to the liquid hydrogen fueling operations. NASA said that during the wet rehearsal:

Engineers loaded more than 700,000 gallons of liquid propellant into the rocket, sent a closeout crew to the launch pad to demonstrate closing the Orion spacecraft’s hatches, and completed two runs of terminal count — the final phase of the launch countdown. … Hydrogen gas concentrations remained under allowable limits, giving engineers confidence in new seals installed in an interface used to route fuel to the rocket.

The wet rehearsal was not without its bumps. NASA indicated a “brief” loss of communications in the Launch Control Center early in the fueling operation. But engineers were able to isolate the issue to a specific piece of ground equipment in the Launch Control Center.

So the Artemis launch is still a “go,” with the first available date on March 6. And launchpad preparations are continuing.

Launch dates

For the possible March 2026 launch dates, see the calendar below:

A calendar with the dates March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 greened out.
NASA said the Artemis 2 launch would occur no earlier than these dates in March. Image via NASA.

Love the moon? EarthSky’s 2026 lunar calendar shows the moon phase for every day of the year. Get yours today!

Hydrogen leak delay

NASA said on Tuesday, February 2, 2026, that the Artemis 2 mission – carrying four astronauts – will now make its historic journey around Earth’s moon no earlier than March, 2026. Previously, the launch had been slated for early February. The delay comes after issues arose during a critical test on Tuesday, February 2, of the huge rocket designed to boost the astronauts moonward. EarthSky’s Greg Diesel-Walck, who has been on the scene at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said the issue was “hydrogen leaks” during the testing phase. 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.

Prior to the February 2 tests, the mission appeared to be delayed due to the cold weather at Kennedy Space Center, which many commented was “eerily similar” to the cold weather on the morning of the 1986 Space Shuttle explosion.

A tall rocket leaving a building with the doors open and blue sky behind.
Reid Wiseman – one of the brave astronauts set to fly around the moon – shared this view of the Artemis 2 rocket on January 17, 2026, as it was rolling out to historic Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket still sits there, poised for blastoff. But its mission to send 4 astronauts around the moon and back has been delayed. Image via Reid Wiseman/ NASA.

January 17: Artemis 2 rocket rolls out to the launchpad

The Artemis 2 spacecraft is poised to go to the moon! NASA rolled out the Artemis 2 rocket on Saturday, January 17, 2026. So the final steps are underway for the first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years. Artemis 2 won’t land on the moon. But it will carry astronauts on a 10-day mission around the moon and back.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the journey to historic Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida took some 12 hours. And, now that the rocket and spacecraft have reached the launchpad, testing will begin. NASA said that by the end of January, we can expect a wet dress rehearsal, when teams load the rocket fuel and perform a countdown without the astronauts present.

And then the mission will launch, with astronauts aboard. For this mission to the moon, Earth and the moon have to be in specific alignments at launch time. The earliest launch window is on February 6, 2026. So the possible dates of launch through April 2026 are as follows:

  • February 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11
  • March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11
  • April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Earth and moon with a figure 8 shaped trajectory around them, and lots of text.
View larger. | We’re going back to the moon! And soon. This is the Artemis 2 planned figure-8 path through space, plus its mission goals. Image via NASA.

What is the Artemis 2 moon mission?

No nation has sent humans anywhere near the moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. All crewed missions since then have remained in low Earth orbit, meaning humans haven’t traveled to the moon’s distance in more than 50 years. But that’s about to change.

The Artemis 2 mission – a crewed flight around the moon – could launch as early as February 2026. Boeing is the prime contractor for the mighty Space Launch System (SLS) that will propel the astronauts into Earth orbit. The astronauts will ride in Orion, NASA’s deep-space crew capsule, built by Lockheed. After reaching orbit, Orion will separate from the rocket’s upper stage, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS). And the Orion module will then fire its engine for the all-important Trans-Lunar Injection Burn, which will place the astronauts onto their figure-8 path around the moon and back.

Orion will follow a free-return trajectory, which is the same safety approach used during Apollo. Even without further engine firings, the spacecraft would loop around the moon and naturally return home.

But on its way to the moon and back, the Orion crew capsule will be able to make small burns. These will allow for more precision in the angle at which the craft encounters the moon, and returns to Earth for splashdown.

After a successful Artemis 2 mission, the following mission, Artemis 3, will be the first mission to return humans to the moon’s surface since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and ’70s. Artemis 3, originally slated for September 2026, has now been delayed until at least mid-2027.

Enormous building with American flag and NASA logo. A huge orange cylinder lying next to it, with tiny people nearby.
Back in July 2024, the Artemis 2 moon rocket core (orange, lying horizontally), could be seen in front of NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Scientists and engineers had been at work inside the VAB through the late summer and fall, preparing for Artemis 2’s September 2025 launch (now delayed until as early as February 2026). Image via Greg Diesel Walck for EarthSky.

When will Artemis reach the moon?

The goal of Artemis is to return astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The program is in some sense a stepping-stone mission. Ultimate goals include a lunar base and human missions to Mars.

Artemis 1 successfully completed its mission in 2022 with an uncrewed test flight that orbited the moon. Artemis 2 will send a crewed mission around the moon. And Artemis 3 will return humans to the lunar surface.

And Artemis 4, another mission to take humans to the moon, was supposed to follow no earlier than September 2028. Of the four missions, Artemis 4 is the most ambitious. Its goals include:

  • Multiple launches and spacecraft dockings in lunar orbit.
  • Delivering an International Habitation (I-Hab) module to the Gateway space station in lunar orbit.
  • Landing two astronauts on the moon, where they will spend a week collecting samples and conducting science experiments, rover operations, and moon walks.
Part of a spacecraft in the foreground, and the moon in the background against black space.
Here’s NASA’s uncrewed Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft capturing a selfie as it flew near the moon in November 2022. Image via NASA.

The astronauts who will circle the moon with Artemis

The four Artemis 2 astronauts have already been chosen and were announced on April 3, 2023. They are Christina Hammock Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Canadian Jeremy Hansen. Learn more about them below.

Christina Koch

Victor Glover

Reid Wiseman

Jeremy Hansen

The vision of the Artemis program

Ultimately, the Artemis program aims to send the first humans back to the moon this decade. When they go, they’ll be aiming for the moon’s south pole, a place that scientists – as discovered in recent decades – has large amounts of water ice. Water contains oxygen, so processing it will make it possible for future astronauts to stay longer.

Someday, visionaries still hope, we will have a permanent presence on the moon, and we will go to Mars.

Indeed, such dreams are an integral part of humanity’s natural wanderlust in the 21st century. And so future historians might look back at our time – and at the Artemis missions – as the moment humanity took a true giant leap to space, maybe this time for good.


Are we going to BOTH the moon AND Mars? EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd spoke with Eric Berger – the senior space editor at Ars Technica – on March 24, 2025, about the Artemis mission, and about what we know so far about the plan to go to Mars. Watch the video in the player above or on YouTube.

Bottom line: On February 20, 2026, NASA said the 4 astronauts who will fly aboard Artemis 2 have entered quarantine ahead of the March 6 launch opportunity.

Read more: New NASA moon suit makes its debut

Read more: Ice on the moon is widespread, new study shows

The post Artemis 2 moon launch now set for March 6 first appeared on EarthSky.



from EarthSky https://ift.tt/PS869Ib
A rocketship stands on a platform under a deep blue sky.
Artemis 2 stands poised on the launchpad ahead of its possible March 6, 2026, launch. Soon, Artemis will become the first mission in more than half a century to carry people around the moon, before returning to Earth. Image via NASA/ Ben Smegelsky.

Artemis 2 astronauts quarantine ahead of March 6 launch

On February 20, 2026, NASA said the four Artemis 2 astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen – had entered quarantine in Houston in preparation for their upcoming moon launch. They’ll soon become the first humans to fly around the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The launch opportunity will come on March 6. These two weeks of quarantine are meant to limit the exposure they have to germs, so they can be in good health during their expedition. The crew will fly to Kennedy Space Center five days before the launch.

Soon, possibly on March 6, Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen will embark on their 10-day journey. They’ll fly past the moon on a “free-return trajectory,” venturing further into space than any humans have traveled since the Apollo era.

On February 19, NASA completed a wet dress rehearsal for this momentous event. During this rehearsal, technicians oversaw the systems, paying particular attention to the liquid hydrogen fueling operations. NASA said that during the wet rehearsal:

Engineers loaded more than 700,000 gallons of liquid propellant into the rocket, sent a closeout crew to the launch pad to demonstrate closing the Orion spacecraft’s hatches, and completed two runs of terminal count — the final phase of the launch countdown. … Hydrogen gas concentrations remained under allowable limits, giving engineers confidence in new seals installed in an interface used to route fuel to the rocket.

The wet rehearsal was not without its bumps. NASA indicated a “brief” loss of communications in the Launch Control Center early in the fueling operation. But engineers were able to isolate the issue to a specific piece of ground equipment in the Launch Control Center.

So the Artemis launch is still a “go,” with the first available date on March 6. And launchpad preparations are continuing.

Launch dates

For the possible March 2026 launch dates, see the calendar below:

A calendar with the dates March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 greened out.
NASA said the Artemis 2 launch would occur no earlier than these dates in March. Image via NASA.

Love the moon? EarthSky’s 2026 lunar calendar shows the moon phase for every day of the year. Get yours today!

Hydrogen leak delay

NASA said on Tuesday, February 2, 2026, that the Artemis 2 mission – carrying four astronauts – will now make its historic journey around Earth’s moon no earlier than March, 2026. Previously, the launch had been slated for early February. The delay comes after issues arose during a critical test on Tuesday, February 2, of the huge rocket designed to boost the astronauts moonward. EarthSky’s Greg Diesel-Walck, who has been on the scene at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said the issue was “hydrogen leaks” during the testing phase. 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.

Prior to the February 2 tests, the mission appeared to be delayed due to the cold weather at Kennedy Space Center, which many commented was “eerily similar” to the cold weather on the morning of the 1986 Space Shuttle explosion.

A tall rocket leaving a building with the doors open and blue sky behind.
Reid Wiseman – one of the brave astronauts set to fly around the moon – shared this view of the Artemis 2 rocket on January 17, 2026, as it was rolling out to historic Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket still sits there, poised for blastoff. But its mission to send 4 astronauts around the moon and back has been delayed. Image via Reid Wiseman/ NASA.

January 17: Artemis 2 rocket rolls out to the launchpad

The Artemis 2 spacecraft is poised to go to the moon! NASA rolled out the Artemis 2 rocket on Saturday, January 17, 2026. So the final steps are underway for the first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years. Artemis 2 won’t land on the moon. But it will carry astronauts on a 10-day mission around the moon and back.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, the journey to historic Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida took some 12 hours. And, now that the rocket and spacecraft have reached the launchpad, testing will begin. NASA said that by the end of January, we can expect a wet dress rehearsal, when teams load the rocket fuel and perform a countdown without the astronauts present.

And then the mission will launch, with astronauts aboard. For this mission to the moon, Earth and the moon have to be in specific alignments at launch time. The earliest launch window is on February 6, 2026. So the possible dates of launch through April 2026 are as follows:

  • February 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11
  • March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11
  • April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Earth and moon with a figure 8 shaped trajectory around them, and lots of text.
View larger. | We’re going back to the moon! And soon. This is the Artemis 2 planned figure-8 path through space, plus its mission goals. Image via NASA.

What is the Artemis 2 moon mission?

No nation has sent humans anywhere near the moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972. All crewed missions since then have remained in low Earth orbit, meaning humans haven’t traveled to the moon’s distance in more than 50 years. But that’s about to change.

The Artemis 2 mission – a crewed flight around the moon – could launch as early as February 2026. Boeing is the prime contractor for the mighty Space Launch System (SLS) that will propel the astronauts into Earth orbit. The astronauts will ride in Orion, NASA’s deep-space crew capsule, built by Lockheed. After reaching orbit, Orion will separate from the rocket’s upper stage, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS). And the Orion module will then fire its engine for the all-important Trans-Lunar Injection Burn, which will place the astronauts onto their figure-8 path around the moon and back.

Orion will follow a free-return trajectory, which is the same safety approach used during Apollo. Even without further engine firings, the spacecraft would loop around the moon and naturally return home.

But on its way to the moon and back, the Orion crew capsule will be able to make small burns. These will allow for more precision in the angle at which the craft encounters the moon, and returns to Earth for splashdown.

After a successful Artemis 2 mission, the following mission, Artemis 3, will be the first mission to return humans to the moon’s surface since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and ’70s. Artemis 3, originally slated for September 2026, has now been delayed until at least mid-2027.

Enormous building with American flag and NASA logo. A huge orange cylinder lying next to it, with tiny people nearby.
Back in July 2024, the Artemis 2 moon rocket core (orange, lying horizontally), could be seen in front of NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Scientists and engineers had been at work inside the VAB through the late summer and fall, preparing for Artemis 2’s September 2025 launch (now delayed until as early as February 2026). Image via Greg Diesel Walck for EarthSky.

When will Artemis reach the moon?

The goal of Artemis is to return astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The program is in some sense a stepping-stone mission. Ultimate goals include a lunar base and human missions to Mars.

Artemis 1 successfully completed its mission in 2022 with an uncrewed test flight that orbited the moon. Artemis 2 will send a crewed mission around the moon. And Artemis 3 will return humans to the lunar surface.

And Artemis 4, another mission to take humans to the moon, was supposed to follow no earlier than September 2028. Of the four missions, Artemis 4 is the most ambitious. Its goals include:

  • Multiple launches and spacecraft dockings in lunar orbit.
  • Delivering an International Habitation (I-Hab) module to the Gateway space station in lunar orbit.
  • Landing two astronauts on the moon, where they will spend a week collecting samples and conducting science experiments, rover operations, and moon walks.
Part of a spacecraft in the foreground, and the moon in the background against black space.
Here’s NASA’s uncrewed Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft capturing a selfie as it flew near the moon in November 2022. Image via NASA.

The astronauts who will circle the moon with Artemis

The four Artemis 2 astronauts have already been chosen and were announced on April 3, 2023. They are Christina Hammock Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Canadian Jeremy Hansen. Learn more about them below.

Christina Koch

Victor Glover

Reid Wiseman

Jeremy Hansen

The vision of the Artemis program

Ultimately, the Artemis program aims to send the first humans back to the moon this decade. When they go, they’ll be aiming for the moon’s south pole, a place that scientists – as discovered in recent decades – has large amounts of water ice. Water contains oxygen, so processing it will make it possible for future astronauts to stay longer.

Someday, visionaries still hope, we will have a permanent presence on the moon, and we will go to Mars.

Indeed, such dreams are an integral part of humanity’s natural wanderlust in the 21st century. And so future historians might look back at our time – and at the Artemis missions – as the moment humanity took a true giant leap to space, maybe this time for good.


Are we going to BOTH the moon AND Mars? EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd spoke with Eric Berger – the senior space editor at Ars Technica – on March 24, 2025, about the Artemis mission, and about what we know so far about the plan to go to Mars. Watch the video in the player above or on YouTube.

Bottom line: On February 20, 2026, NASA said the 4 astronauts who will fly aboard Artemis 2 have entered quarantine ahead of the March 6 launch opportunity.

Read more: New NASA moon suit makes its debut

Read more: Ice on the moon is widespread, new study shows

The post Artemis 2 moon launch now set for March 6 first appeared on EarthSky.



from EarthSky https://ift.tt/PS869Ib
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