NASA Director Jared Isaacman on Saturday (21/02/2026) ruled out a March launch of the Artemis II mission due to technical problems with the rocket, which is designed to carry astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
With this announcement, the launch, already years late, will be delayed until at least April 1st.
The delay came a day after an upbeat announcement from NASA, which had set a launch date of March 6 after a large and apparently successful dress rehearsal.
However, the agency’s engineers discovered a failure in the flow of helium in one of the rocket’s stages during the night, Isaakman explained to X.
“Whatever the damage is,” it would force the U.S. space agency to return the rocket to the assembly building, “eliminating the launch window” planned for March, NASA’s new administrator said.
“I understand that people are disappointed,” he continued, drawing parallels with the failures of the first Apollo lunar program in 1960.
The Artemis II mission will be the first manned flight around the moon since the end of the US program in 1972 that brought the first and only humans to the lunar surface. Three Americans and one Canadian are participating.
His mission will be groundbreaking in several ways, as it will be the first lunar mission involving a woman, a black man and a Canadian.
gs (afp, ap, dpa)
