US EditionNASA Begins Loading Rocket with Propellant in Crucial Test Ahead of Historic Moon Mission Launch
NASA loaded over 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant during a final test to verify the Space Launch System rocket's readiness for Artemis II lunar mission.
- On Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, NASA's launch team began fueling the Artemis II rocket at Kennedy Space Center with over 700,000 gallons of super-cold propellants.
- Launch managers say weather and timing pressures, including Arctic cold, delayed rehearsals and shortened the February window, with a Feb. 11 deadline in mind.
- A simulated countdown set for 9 p.m. ET will involve fueling the rocket, charging Orion's flight batteries, and pausing before ignition, as Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said.
- A successful fueling demo would keep the mission on track for an early-February launch, with officials saying the earliest possible liftoff is Feb. 8.
- Artemis II's four astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — will fly a nearly 10-day mission about 750,000 miles from Earth without landing, according to NASA.
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What is the NASA Artemis program?
NASA said Tuesday that it has postponed the second mission of its Artemis program, pushing the highly anticipated launch from Feb. 8 into March. During a wet dress rehearsal of the rocket-towering system at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA said it had run into delays due to weather and found a leak in the hydrogen tanks. The mission is the first crewed flight test aboard the Orion spacecraft, which will send four astro…
NASA plans risky Moon mission
For the first time in more than half a century, astronauts are preparing to travel back towards the Moon. Not to land. Not to plant flags. Just to go there, loop around it, and come home again. That alone tells you a lot about the mood at NASA right now. The mission in question, Artemis II, is being treated less like a celebration and more like a test of nerve. After years of development… Source
NASA set for Artemis II rocket dress rehearsal as US hopes to return to the moon
NASA's last major test for its moon-bound Artemis II rocket is set for Monday night, and, if successful, will open the door for America's first astronaut mission to the moon since 1972.
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