Florida. – NASA announced this Thursday that it will attempt to launch the Artemis II mission into lunar orbit on April 1 after fixing the bugs that caused the delay in February and after addressing issues during a flight readiness test.
“We’re on track for a launch no earlier than April 1, and we’re working to meet that date,” NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Lori Glaze said at a news conference.
LIVE: Following the completion of the Artemis II Flight Readiness Review, we share the latest news on our upcoming crewed lunar mission. https://t.co/aWOpUspv85
— NASA (@NASA) March 12, 2026
Artemis II will launch four astronauts into lunar orbit, marking the closest human approach to the Moon in more than half a century.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN:
Transfer of the rocket to the launch pad is scheduled for March 19, Glaze added, a day after mission members begin mandatory quarantine at the space agency’s facilities in Houston, Texas.
Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen will travel to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch on March 27.
The mission was originally scheduled to launch in February, but was delayed due to problems with the ship’s helium supply while it was already on the launch pad, leading to the dismantling of the rocket and capsule.
The problem was caused by a seal in the quick-disconnect mechanism through which helium flows from ground systems into the rocket, preventing the passage of fuel, the space agency revealed last week.
“One of the seals would sometimes come out of place and it would block the flow through the quick connector. We ended up removing that seal and putting in another one that would be less susceptible to this phenomenon,” explained mission management team president John Honeycutt.
As for the risks of the mission, NASA experts agreed that the mission is “not without risk” and it is very possible that sometimes the scenario will not be desired, although they assured that they have done “everything possible to reduce” this possibility.
“It’s not the first flight, but we’re also not on a regular cadence, so we definitely have a lot more risk than a mission with a flight system that flies all the time,” Glaze said.
The Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon, a trip now scheduled for no earlier than 2028 during Artemis IV, following the latest schedule changes made by NASA.
____
We invite you to visit us on the new NY1 Noticias WhatsApp channel. There, you’ll find the most up-to-date news about what’s happening in New York, as well as other stories about the rest of the country, Latin America and the world. Click this link to access the channel. We appreciate it in advance if you become one of our subscribers and express your reaction to what we post with emojis.
