1 of 5 | Artemis II moon rocket sits on Launch Complex 39B at sunset at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on February 6. On Thursday, the mission had a successful dress rehearsal and is planning to launch as soon as March 6. Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo
The NASA Artemis II second wet dress rehearsal went far better than the first, NASA said Friday, though it still found a few smaller glitches.
NASA had its second wet dress rehearsal, in which it fills the rocket with fuel and practices the countdown, Thursday evening at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Its first attempt was Feb. 3, but it was cut short due to hydrogen leaks.
“Major progress between WDR and WDR2. Proud of the @NASA team as this was a big step toward America’s return to the lunar environment. We are going,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on X.
LIVE: NASA experts discuss results of the second fueling test for our upcoming @NASAArtemis mission to fly around the Moon. https://t.co/MGc5yburW4— NASA (@NASA) February 20, 2026
NASA said the crew will begin its two-week pre-flight quarantine Friday, with the first date for potential launch being March 6. The launch will take four crew members around the moon and back over 10 days. While they won’t land on the moon, they will be the first to leave the low-earth orbit in more than 50 years.
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, NASA said.
During fueling, teams monitored liquid hydrogen fueling. The hydrogen gas concentrations remained within limits, which gave engineers confidence in the new seals they had installed in an interface used to send fuel to the rocket, NASA said.
Teams had a loss of ground communications early in the fueling. They were able to move to backup communication methods to keep propellant loading operations safe until normal communications were restored. Engineers were able to find the communications issue. There was also a voltage anomaly that briefly paused the countdown.
While the Artemis II sat on its launch pad Thursday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying Starlink satellites to orbit.
The Artemis I mission in 2022 flew around the moon but didn’t have a crew aboard. The Artemis II crew includes mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. Hansen is from the Canadian Space Agency, and the others are NASA astronauts.
Artemis II rocket rolls out to the launchpad in Florida
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket emerges on Saturday morning from the Vehicle Assembly Building to start its journey to Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo
