NASA has announced that America is now just weeks away from a historic return to the moon for the first time in over 50 years.
The space agency revealed on Tuesday that the earliest Artemis II, the first manned mission to the moon since 1972, will launch on February 6.
NASA officials noted that the official launch window for Artemis II will remain open from January 31 to February 14, with several alternate dates also being picked out.
Artemis II can’t launch on just any day. The timing will depend on precise orbital mechanics, such as where Earth and the moon are positioned, rocket performance, and weather conditions near the launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
February 7, 8, 10, and 11 have been chosen as potential backup launch dates. If something prevents the launch in February, NASA has also picked out dates in early March and April for the upcoming moon mission.
Artemis II will be the first space mission with a human crew in 53 years to go beyond low Earth orbit.
It will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the moon and back.
The Artemis II mission will not land on the moon’s surface. The first lunar landing in the Artemis program is scheduled for Artemis III, currently planned to take place in 2027.
(From left to right) Astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch pose in their flight suits for the Artemis II mission, scheduled for February 2026
NASA’s new moon rocket lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 16, 2022. It was the first test fight of the Artemis program
As early as February 6, the astronauts will launch from Cape Canaveral in an Orion spacecraft, carried by NASA’s powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket system.
They’ll first orbit Earth a couple of times to test the life support equipment and then head toward the moon for a lunar flyby, a close pass without orbiting or landing.
The spacecraft will use the moon’s gravity to slingshot back toward Earth in a ‘free-return trajectory,’ meaning if anything goes wrong, it can safely return without extra use of their engines.
The main goal of the mission will be to prove the rocket, spacecraft, and systems work perfectly with humans on board, paving the way for Artemis III’s landing next year.
NASA is less than a week away from the first part of this historic event, the rollout, set to begin as soon as January 17.
The fully stacked SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft is scheduled to ‘roll out’ from NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center.
It’s a four-mile trip that uses a giant crawler-transporter to carry the rocket and can take up to 12 hours to complete.
Once at the pad, teams will connect power and fuel lines, and do final rocket testing before the astronauts start their walkthrough for the flight.
NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, which will carry the Artemis II spacecraft, is seen inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Once Artemis II is on the launch pad, NASA crews will go through what’s called a ‘wet dress rehearsal’ and ‘tanking’ procedure.
They’ll load the SLS rocket with over 700,000 gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen, which act as the propellants that ignite and blast the craft into space.
NASA will even run through a fake countdown to launch, practice holds and restarts, and then safely drain the tanks of the fuel until it’s time for the real launch.
The rehearsal tests the space agency’s fueling procedures and helps check for any problems with the rocket, such as leaks in the rocket tanks or valves.
If any problems are spotted, NASA will likely need to run multiple rehearsals and possibly delay the launch.
In September 2025, former NASA Administrator Sean Duffy publicly announced that ‘about a year and a half’ after the Artemis II mission, the Artemis III astronaut mission would ‘land and establish a long-term presence of life on the moon led by America.’
He continued by saying that what astronauts learn from the renewed missions to the moon will help in future efforts to ‘put American boots on Mars.’
