The Artemis II rocket stands located on a launchpad at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.(Image credit: Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images)
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Note from the editor: This article has been revised to reflect NASA’s statement that Artemis II’s planned rollback will now occur on Wednesday (Feb. 25), one day later than originally scheduled, because of windy weather.
NASA has once more postponed its landmark Artemis II lunar mission following the space agency’s discovery of a helium flow issue with the moon rocket Friday night (Feb. 20-21).
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To address the problem, NASA has reported that it will remove the rocket and Orion spacecraft from their current launchpad at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, transporting them back to KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building as soon as Wednesday (Feb. 25).
“Returning to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy is essential to identifying the cause of the issue and then repairing it,” a representative for NASA indicated in a written statement.
The Artemis Program has seen a string of problems and setbacks, including a number of hydrogen leaks. Nonetheless, this recent setback will likely be especially disappointing for space enthusiasts hoping to witness the launch of Artemis II after it seemed to pass a critical fueling exercise on Thursday (Feb. 19).
NASA stated that the SLS systems worked successfully during Thursday’s wet dress rehearsal, during which employees exhibited the systems’ capacity to safely fuel upward of 700,000 gallons (2.6 million liters) of cryogenic propellants — extremely cold liquid hydrogen fuel in addition to liquid oxygen oxidizer — and completed a simulated launch. The positive result of the test produced an enthusiastic press briefing by NASA on Friday (Feb. 20).
“Every night I look up at the Moon and I see it, and I get real excited because I can feel she’s calling us and we’re ready,” Lori Glaze, manager of NASA’s Moon to Mars program, announced at the press conference. “The excitement for Artemis II is really, really starting to build, we can really start to feel it. It’s coming.”
But Artemis’s ambitions suffered a setback later that day, after the helium system’s problem on the rocket’s upper stage led to a situation where “the team was unable to get helium flow through the vehicle,” according to a Saturday update on X by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. Helium is utilized on the SLS upper stage (also known as the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage) in order to purge its engine and to apply pressure to its propellant tanks.
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As an update to my earlier post. – The ICPS helium bottles are used to purge the engines, as well as for LH2 and LOX tank pressurization. The systems did work correctly during WDR1 and WDR2.- Last evening, the team was unable to get helium flow through the vehicle. This… https://t.co/Qte3nEXwQbFebruary 21, 2026
NASA is presently examining potential reasons for the difficulty involving helium flow, which entails inspecting the connection linking the lines on the ground with those on the rocket utilized to channel helium. A filter in the middle of ground and rocket and a valve located in the upper section are also being looked into. The agency has announced that it is also studying data collected from Artemis I, an uncrewed preliminary mission that served as a precursor to Artemis II, which itself had experienced problems with helium-related pressurization prior to its 2022 launch.
The Artemis II SLS rocket was transported back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) before its eventual successful launch in November 2022, and this latest development does not necessarily indicate that Artemis II won’t be launched successfully. NASA is optimistic that the rollback to the VAB will allow for a swift turnaround, to keep the April launch window viable. Nevertheless, spaceflight constitutes a difficult and complex process, and there remains no absolute guarantee that Artemis II will be launched in April. Additional updates on Artemis II are expected this week.
“The quick work to begin preparations for rolling the rocket and spacecraft back to the VAB potentially preserves the April launch window, pending the outcome of data findings, repair efforts, and how the schedule comes to fruition in the coming days and weeks,” NASA noted in its update.
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Artemis II will represent a milestone mission, if and when it does launch, noting the beginning of NASA returning humans to the moon after a break of more than 50 years; it will also be the first time that NASA has dispatched both a woman and a Black man as part of the lunar crew.
NASA intends to utilize the 10-day flight orbiting the moon to assess systems and gather data in anticipation of the Artemis III mission, which seeks to achieve a lunar landing by astronauts in 2028. NASA hopes to build a sustained presence on the moon by way of the Artemis Program, eventually using the moon as an intermediary step in the process of dispatching astronauts to Mars.
The proposed launch windows in April for Artemis II span April 1, April 3-6, and April 30. The mission is intended to launch by April 30.
TOPICSNASASpace Launch System
Patrick PesterSocial Links NavigationTrending News Writer
Patrick Pester is the trending news writer at Live Science. His work has appeared on other science websites, such as BBC Science Focus and Scientific American. Patrick retrained as a journalist after spending his early career working in zoos and wildlife conservation. He was awarded the Master’s Excellence Scholarship to study at Cardiff University where he completed a master’s degree in international journalism. He also has a second master’s degree in biodiversity, evolution and conservation in action from Middlesex University London. When he isn’t writing news, Patrick investigates the sale of human remains.
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Watch NASA roll its historic Artemis II moon rocket to the launch pad this weekend
NASA starts countdown clock for second Artemis II wet dress rehearsal after rocky first attempt