NASA could be sending a crew on the Orion spacecraft out past the moon in less than a month if everything falls into place. But first the agency has to get its rocket to the launch pad. That could as early as next Saturday when the mobile launcher topped with the Space Launch System rocket and Orion could make the four-mile slow roll atop the crawler-transporter 2 from the Vehicle Assembly

NASA fired up RS-25 engine No. 20001 at the Fred Haise Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center at Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The test lasted about "eight-and-a-half minutes (500 seconds), the same amount of time RS-25 engines fire during a launch of an SLS (Space Launch System) rocket on Artemis missions to the Moon,

SLS and the Orion spacecraft are fully stacked together inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center. Once final tests are complete, the launch vehicle will be rolled out onto the pad at Launch Complex-39A, which should take about 10 hours.

🚨Mission Update: Rollout for Artemis II is less than two weeks away.This milestone begins final, system-wide testing as NASA prepares to send astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, with a launch window opening as soon as February 6. pic.twitter.com/gKRqUXIfMg January 2, 2026

NASA announced that the earliest launch window for Artemis II is Feb. 6, 2026, with 12 more possible dates available from February-April. The Artemis mission, a followup to the Apollo program, hopes to have astronauts back on the moon’s surface by 2027.

NASA has confirmed the upcoming milestones for its historic Artemis II mission—the first crewed flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, sending four astronauts on a lunar flyby for the first time in over 50 years—with rollout and Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) to set the stage for a potential launch in February.

NASA announced on Friday evening (Jan. 9) that it plans to roll the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft that will fly the Artemis 2 moon mission out to the pad for prelaunch checks on Jan. 17, weather and technical readiness permitting.

The medical evacuation of SpaceX's Crew-11 astronauts from the International Space Station shouldn't interfere with Artemis 2's launch to the moon, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman says.

NASA says it is continuing to prepare for a possible Artemis 2 launch as soon as February, but with remarkably little publicity for the historic mission.

Godspeed, Artemis 2! As early as February, 4 astronauts will board NASA's Orion capsule atop the SLS rocket in Florida for 10-day trip around the moon.

The Artemis III follow-up mission plans to do an actual crewed landing, but that's run into some scheduling problems. The initial plan was to use a modified version of SpaceX's Starship, specially developed for NASA under the Human Lander System (HLS) program.