NASA Eyes March 6 To Launch 4 Astronauts To the Moon On Artemis II Mission (npr.org)
(Friday February 20, 2026 @10:30PM (BeauHD)
from the start-getting-excited dept.)
- Reference: 0180833718
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/02/20/238201/nasa-eyes-march-6-to-launch-4-astronauts-to-the-moon-on-artemis-ii-mission
- Source link: https://www.npr.org/2026/02/20/nx-s1-5720953/nasa-artemis-ii-moon-launch-date
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR:
> NASA could launch four astronauts on a mission to fly around the moon as soon as March 6th. That's the [1]launch date (PDF) that the space agency is [2]now working towards following a successful test fueling of its big, 322-foot-tall moon rocket, which is standing on a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
>
> "This is really getting real," says Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA's exploration systems development mission directorate. "It's time to get serious and start getting excited." But she cautioned that there's still some pending work that remains to be done out at the launch pad, and officials will have to conduct a multi-day flight readiness review late next week to make sure that every aspect of the mission is truly ready to go. "We need to successfully navigate all of those, but assuming that happens, it puts us in a very good position to target March 6th," she says, noting that the flight readiness review will be "extensive and detailed." [...]
>
> When NASA workers first tested out fueling the rocket earlier this month, they encountered problems like a [3]liquid hydrogen leak . Swapping out some seals and other work seems to have fixed these issues, according to officials who say that the latest countdown dress rehearsal went smoothly, despite glitches such as a loss of ground communications in the Launch Control Center that forced workers to temporarily use backups.
[1] https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/artemis-ii-mission-availability.pdf
[2] https://www.npr.org/2026/02/20/nx-s1-5720953/nasa-artemis-ii-moon-launch-date
[3] https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/1931235/nasa-delays-artemis-ii-to-march
> NASA could launch four astronauts on a mission to fly around the moon as soon as March 6th. That's the [1]launch date (PDF) that the space agency is [2]now working towards following a successful test fueling of its big, 322-foot-tall moon rocket, which is standing on a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
>
> "This is really getting real," says Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA's exploration systems development mission directorate. "It's time to get serious and start getting excited." But she cautioned that there's still some pending work that remains to be done out at the launch pad, and officials will have to conduct a multi-day flight readiness review late next week to make sure that every aspect of the mission is truly ready to go. "We need to successfully navigate all of those, but assuming that happens, it puts us in a very good position to target March 6th," she says, noting that the flight readiness review will be "extensive and detailed." [...]
>
> When NASA workers first tested out fueling the rocket earlier this month, they encountered problems like a [3]liquid hydrogen leak . Swapping out some seals and other work seems to have fixed these issues, according to officials who say that the latest countdown dress rehearsal went smoothly, despite glitches such as a loss of ground communications in the Launch Control Center that forced workers to temporarily use backups.
[1] https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/artemis-ii-mission-availability.pdf
[2] https://www.npr.org/2026/02/20/nx-s1-5720953/nasa-artemis-ii-moon-launch-date
[3] https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/02/03/1931235/nasa-delays-artemis-ii-to-march
hope I'm wrong (Score:2)
by spywhere ( 824072 )
I have a bad feeling about this one.
seals seals seals... (Score:2)
by guygo ( 894298 )
it's always the seals. That's a lotta PSI at a very low Temp they're holding back.
I hope they get to Go. Godspeed.
Mission: Step 3 (Score:2)
by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 )
From TFS and TFA:
> NASA could launch four astronauts on a mission to fly around the moon as soon as March 6th.
And come back safely. Funny how articles always seem to forget this bit -- noting that JFK specifically *did* say this in his [1]We choose to go to the Moon [wikipedia.org] speech:
> I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_choose_to_go_to_the_Moon
Target dates are needed (Score:2)
Without a target date, nothing get's done. Since it is, indeed, rocket science, many things may still happen to cause additional delays, but it is a date. Best wishes to NASA and their team.