The crisis-plagued lunar mission “Artemis 2” is further delayed.
02/23/2026, 04:0702/23/2026, 04:07
The “Artemis 2” rocket system is scheduled to leave its place on the launch platform this week and be rolled back into the hangar for repairs.
Problem rocket: The “Artemis-2” project is stalling.Image: keystone
The US space agency Nasa has set Tuesday as the earliest date for the “rollback” on the grounds of the Kennedy Space Center in the US state of Florida. However, this would still depend on the weather, the authority announced on Sunday. NASA plans to plan several hours for the six-kilometer-long route.
NASA boss Jared Isaacman announced on Saturday that there was a problem with the helium supply in one of the rocket stages. To fix the problem, the launch vehicle and the Orion space capsule would have to be brought back to the assembly hall. This means that the launch window planned for March can no longer be met, wrote Isaacman on Platform X.
Whether the start could possibly take place in April now depends on how quickly the technical problems can be solved, it was said on Sunday. The four-person crew had previously been released from quarantine.
Will the launch be successful in April?
NASA had originally targeted the “Artemis 2” launch for the beginning of February, but this date had to be postponed due to hydrogen leaks during tests. After another test run, in which all processes except the actual launch were tested, NASA boss Isaacman only spoke on Friday of “great progress”. The earliest possible start date for the mission was given as March 6th. The first manned flight to the moon in more than 50 years is still a long time coming.
The “Artemis 2” mission will allow people to fly near the moon for the first time in more than half a century. The US astronaut Christina Koch, the US astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman and their Canadian colleague Jeremy Hansen are supposed to orbit the moon on the approximately ten-day mission. The last time US astronauts were on the moon was in 1972. (sda/dpa)