CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, January 17, 2026, 10:32 EST
- NASA began rolling its Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule toward Launch Pad 39B in Florida on Saturday.
- The agency says the earliest launch window for the roughly 10-day lunar fly-around opens on Feb. 6, pending pad tests and a full fueling rehearsal.
- Artemis II will carry four astronauts around the Moon and back, NASA’s first crewed lunar mission since 1972.
NASA began moving its Artemis II Moon rocket to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, a key step toward the agency’s first crewed flight around the Moon in more than 50 years. The four-mile rollout to Launch Pad 39B started at 7:04 a.m. EST, NASA said, with the earliest launch window opening on Feb. 6. (NASA)
The rollout puts the Space Launch System, or SLS — NASA’s heavy-lift rocket — into its final stretch of tests at the pad. Engineers plan a “wet dress rehearsal,” a full fueling practice with super-cold propellants but no engine firing, before managers pick a launch date. https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/01/16/artemis-ii-moon-rocket-ready-for-big-move/
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called Artemis II “a momentous step forward for human spaceflight” as the agency published a new press kit for the mission this week. NASA said the flight will push crews farther from Earth than any team has traveled before and collect data needed for later return-to-the-surface attempts. https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/what-you-need-to-know-about-nasas-artemis-ii-moon-mission/
The 322-foot rocket stack crept out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at about 1 mile per hour, riding on a crawler transporter first used in the Apollo and shuttle eras. “This one feels a lot different, putting crew on the rocket and taking the crew around the moon,” Artemis II mission management chair John Honeycutt said, as thousands of workers and family members gathered before dawn to watch, AP reported. https://apnews.com/article/artemis-nasa-moonshot-921fc1a0a832217fae8b57d2fce2dc66
Artemis II will carry commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch — all NASA astronauts — along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. NASA has said the crew includes the first woman and the first person of color assigned to a lunar mission, though the flight will not attempt a landing. https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-names-astronauts-to-next-moon-mission-first-crew-under-artemis/
NASA is also trying to keep other human spaceflight work moving in parallel, including a planned crew rotation to the International Space Station, CBS News reported. Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said the rollout is slow by design — “come outside for the world to have a look” — while Honeycutt told reporters, “We’re making history.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-juggling-piloted-moon-mission-and-space-station-crew-replacement-flight/
But the schedule is still soft. NASA officials and outside coverage have flagged the fueling rehearsal and pad checkouts as the make-or-break events, after propellant leaks and other issues complicated the Artemis I campaign, and any delay could push the crewed launch attempt beyond early February. https://www.space.com/news/live/artemis-2-nasa-moon-rocket-rollout-jan-17-2026
The Artemis push sits inside a wider race back to the Moon. China’s manned space agency has said it aims to achieve a crewed lunar landing by 2030. https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202305/29/content_WS64748c46c6d03ffcca6ed781.html
Artemis II also keeps pressure on a U.S. industrial base that spans some of the country’s biggest aerospace contractors, with Boeing and Northrop Grumman tied to the SLS rocket and Lockheed Martin building the Orion capsule, Reuters has reported. https://www.reuters.com/science/first-us-artemis-astronaut-mission-around-moon-track-april-officials-say-2025-09-23/
For now, Saturday’s crawl to the pad is the visible part — orange core stage, twin boosters, the capsule on top — while the deciding work happens later: hookups, rehearsals, and the readiness call that will set a firm launch date.
