Artemis rocket heads back to its hangar for repairs as moonshot put on hold
#Artemis II#Space Launch System#NASA#moon mission#rocket rollback#Kennedy Space Center#helium blockage#launch delay
📌 Key Takeaways
NASA rolls Artemis rocket back to hangar for repairs
Moon mission delayed by at least a month
Helium flow blockage discovered in booster's upper stage
April launch opportunities being considered
This follows previous hydrogen leak issues with Artemis program
📖 Full Retelling
NASA on Wednesday is set to roll its enormous Space Launch System rocket back to the hangar for repairs at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, a move that will delay the launch of four astronauts on a long-awaited flight around the moon by at least a month after engineers discovered a helium flow blockage in the booster's upper stage. The 322-foot-tall rocket has been positioned at the launch pad since mid-January, but the recent discovery of the helium issue necessitates the complex 4-mile journey back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. This rollback operation, expected to take up to 12 hours to complete as the rocket moves at approximately 1 mile per hour on a crawler-transporter, means NASA will miss its previously targeted March 6 launch date for the Artemis II mission. The mission, which would mark NASA's first crewed flight with the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule, was set to carry astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch from NASA, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the moon. Once the rocket reaches the hangar, engineers will install platforms to access the area where the helium flow issues were detected and replace batteries in both the rocket's upper stage and its flight termination system. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman acknowledged the disappointment caused by the delay, noting that it is felt most acutely by the NASA team who have been working tirelessly on the mission. The agency is now looking toward April launch opportunities, including dates on April 1, April 3-6, and April 30, though the exact timeline will depend on the outcome of the repairs. This setback follows previous issues with the Artemis program, including hydrogen leaks during earlier fueling tests that forced NASA to delay both a wet dress rehearsal and the uncrewed Artemis I flight in 2022.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and space exploration. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA operates ten field centers across th...
Artemis II is a planned lunar spaceflight mission under the Artemis program, led by NASA. It is intended to be the second flight of the Space Launch System (SLS), and the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft. It is the first crewed mission around the Moon, and beyond low Earth orbit, since A...
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the ten field centers of NASA. Since 1968, KSC has been NASA's primary launch center of American spaceflight, research, and technology. Launch operations for t...
The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle used by NASA. As the primary launch vehicle of the Artemis Moon landing program, SLS is designed to launch the crewed Orion spacecraft on a trans-lunar trajectory. SLS first launched on 16 November 2022 for the u...
Artemis rocket heads back to its hangar for repairs as moonshot put on hold The rollback means NASA will no longer be able to attempt to launch the Artemis II mission in March. The Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft, integrated for the Artemis II mission, at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Feb. 1. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP - Getty Images file Share Add NBC News to Google Feb. 25, 2026, 6:00 AM EST By Denise Chow Listen to this article with a free account 00:00 00:00 NASA on Wednesday is set to roll its enormous Space Launch System rocket back to the hangar for repairs, a move that will delay the launch of four astronauts on a long-awaited flight around the moon by at least a month. The 322-foot-tall rocket has been sitting out at the launch pad at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center since mid-January, but engineers recently found a blockage in the flow of helium to part of the booster’s upper stage that requires further investigation. The rollback means NASA will no longer be able to attempt to launch the Artemis II mission in March. Agency officials said they could potentially try in April, but the timeline will depend on the outcome of the repairs. “I understand people are disappointed by this development,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman wrote Saturday in a post on X . “That disappointment is felt most by the team at NASA, who have been working tirelessly to prepare for this great endeavor.” Rolling the rocket back to its hangar is a major undertaking. The 4-mile journey, which is set to begin Wednesday morning at around 9 a.m. ET, is a famously slow one, and is expected to take up to 12 hours to complete. The 11-million-pound rocket, stacked with the Orion capsule on top, will be carried on a moving platform known as a crawler-transporter that will move at a snail’s pace of around 1 mile per hour. Once the rocket reaches the hangar, called the Vehicle Assembly Building, NASA said teams will install pl...
