NASA says the Artemis II flight — the long‑awaited mission to carry four astronauts around the moon — has been delayed until March after a fueling rehearsal was interrupted by recurring liquid hydrogen leaks and ultimately called off.
Mark Strassmann, reporting from Kennedy Space Center, said the leak at launch pad 39B repeatedly cut short the wet dress rehearsal. Teams halted the test after the leak reoccurred twice and called off the exercise until the issue can be resolved. NASA hopes to repair the problem on the pad and has targeted March 6 as an earliest possible launch date.
The Artemis II mission will send four astronauts on a roughly 10‑day trip that will take them about one‑quarter million miles to the moon, sling their spacecraft around the far side and return to Earth with a Pacific splashdown. If successful, it will be the first time humans have left low‑Earth orbit in more than half a century.
Charlie Blackwell‑Thompson, the launch director, noted the team uses some 500 launch commit criteria to determine go/no‑go status and emphasized, “We’re not going to fly until we’re ready.” She said the hardware is telling the team it isn’t ready yet.
Technicians say the leak “caught us off guard” and they are investigating possible misalignment, deformation or debris on a seal. The setback echoed problems during Artemis I, which required multiple fueling tests to resolve leaks and other issues before that mission could proceed.