‘Uncommon arctic outbreak’ causes NASA to delay Artemis II take a look at

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — The “rare arctic” chill that has been sweeping Florida has precipitated NASA to push again its moist costume rehearsal of the Artemis II moon rocket, the U.S. area company said on Friday morning.

“Over the past several days, engineers have been closely monitoring conditions as cold weather and winds move through Florida. Managers have assessed hardware capabilities against the projected forecast given the rare arctic outbreak affecting the state and decided to change the timeline. Teams and preparations at the launch pad remain ready for the wet dress rehearsal,” NASA stated.

This implies that the unique moist costume rehearsal has been modified from Saturday, Jan. 31, to Monday, Feb. 2.

This additionally implies that the earliest launch date to ship 4 people to the moon won’t be Friday, Feb. 6, however now no sooner than Sunday, Feb. 8.

Scroll all the way down to see the launch try dates for Artemis II.

However, the brand new launch date is tentative and based mostly on how the moist costume rehearsal seems. The rehearsal is to check the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion capsule.

The U.S. area company defined what the testing of the Artemis II rocket can be like.

“The upcoming wet dress rehearsal is a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket. During the rehearsal, teams demonstrate the ability to load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants into the rocket, conduct a launch countdown, and practice safely removing propellant from the rocket without astronauts inside the spacecraft,” said NASA.

Once the take a look at is full and if all goes properly (embrace Mother Nature enjoying good), then the Artemis II will see 4 folks — NASA’s Cmdr. Gregory Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — go to the moon for a flyby mission.

The quartet has been in quarantine in Houston since Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.