NASA has confirmed a new target date for the second Artemis II wet dress rehearsal, setting Thursday, February 19, 2026, as tanking day for the Space Launch System rocket at Kennedy Space Center. The announcement follows weeks of troubleshooting after the first rehearsal was cut short by a liquid hydrogen leak,

On Monday, after rolling the SLS rocket to be used for the Artemis II mission to the pad in January, NASA attempted its first wet-dress test with this new vehicle. At one of the main interfaces where liquid hydrogen enters the vehicle, a leak developed, not dissimilar to problems that occurred with the Artemis I rocket three years ago.

If the mission goes well, Artemis II will also set the stage for Artemis III. Now delayed from 2027 until 2028 at the earliest due to this and other delays, this mission’s aim will be to actually land astronauts at the Lunar South Pole.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft are rolled out to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of a crewed lunar mission (Miguel J.

SpaceX halted Falcon 9 launches for a week while it investigated that issue, which was traced to a fuel leak in one of the booster's nine Merlin engines. This leak led to a fire shortly after touchdown, which weakened a landing leg and caused the vehicle to tip over.