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February 3, 2026<\/p>\n
1 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n NASA delays Artemis II moon mission after critical test raises issues<\/p>\n NASA will review data gathered during a simulated launch of the Artemis II rocket before revealing a new date for its upcoming moon mission<\/p>\n NASA has delayed its upcoming moon mission to at least March following a crucial test of the Artemis II rocket.<\/p>\n NASA on Tuesday said the mission\u2019s wet dress rehearsal, which involved fueling the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and then initiating a countdown sequence, had revealed issues with both the rocket and the Orion capsule that is supposed to house the four astronauts who will be flying on board.<\/p>\n Indeed, this critical test of Artemis II\u2019s systems was not smooth sailing: some hours into fueling the rocket, the SLS appeared to be leaking liquid hydrogen from its core stage, which houses its main engines. That caused NASA to temporarily pause loading the rocket\u2019s propellant in order to trouble shoot the problem. And later, a valve on the Orion capsule malfunctioned, while engineers also attempted to troubleshoot several dropouts of ground teams\u2019 audio communications channels.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Fuel leaks have plagued the SLS before. Artemis I, the predecessor mission to Artemis II, also suffered from fuel leaks during its wet dress rehearsal and at other points in the lead up to the mission, causing its launch to be delayed by weeks.<\/p>\n Artemis II will see four astronauts fly a 10-day loop around the moon and back to Earth, going farther into space than any human has gone before. The mission is currently set to launch no earlier than March.<\/p>\n This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 3, 2026 1 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm NASA delays Artemis II moon mission after critical test raises issues NASA will review data gathered during a simulated launch of the Artemis II rocket before revealing a new date for its upcoming moon mission By Claire Cameron NASA has delayed its upcoming moon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[7387,1387,543,3807,11244,2509,1615,3331,4804,76],"class_list":{"0":"post-43603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-artemis","9":"tag-critical","10":"tag-delays","11":"tag-issues","12":"tag-march","13":"tag-mission","14":"tag-moon","15":"tag-nasa","16":"tag-raises","17":"tag-test"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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