Full Moon over Artemis II

A full moon shines above NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launch vehicle at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in the early hours of February 1, 2026.

The agency concluded a wet dress rehearsal for the agency’s Artemis II test flight early Tuesday morning, successfully loading cryogenic propellant into the Space Launch System (SLS) tanks, sending a team to the launch pad to shut down Orion, and safely emptying the rocket. The wet dress rehearsal was a pre-launch test to fuel the rocket, designed to identify problems and resolve them before attempting a launch. To allow teams to review the data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal, NASA will now target March as the first possible launch opportunity for the flight test.

Learn more about wet dress rehearsal.

Image credit: NASA/Sam Lott