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February 20, 2026<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n NASA just passed a major milestone on its mission to return humans to the moon<\/p>\n After completing a second \u201cwet dress rehearsal\u201d of its upcoming moon mission, NASA said it is targeting a March 6 launch date for Artemis II<\/p>\n The second time is the charm, apparently. NASA successfully completed a major test of its upcoming moon mission, Artemis II, on Thursday. On Friday Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said that, with the test done, the agency is now targeting a March 6 launch date for Artemis II.<\/p>\n Known as a wet dress rehearsal, the test involved fueling the mission\u2019s rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), readying the crew capsule and initiating a mock launch countdown. Its apparent success marked significant progress for the agency: NASA\u2019s first attempted wet dress rehearsal on February 2 exposed several issues with both the SLS and the Orion capsule, including hydrogen fuel leaks\u2014a problem that also plagued the mission\u2019s predecessor, Artemis I.<\/p>\n At a press conference on Friday, NASA\u2019s Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said the agency is confident it has fixed the leaks and that none arose during Thursday\u2019s fueling and mock launch countdown.<\/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 The test is critical to Artemis II: The SLS cannot launch without passing it. And the failure of the first wet dress rehearsal forced NASA to delay its target launch date to March at the earliest. NASA still has to review data from the wet-dress rehearsal and conduct some further tests of flight readiness prior to liftoff, Glaze said.<\/p>\n The Artemis II mission will see four astronauts\u2014NASA\u2019s Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, and Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen\u2014fly on a 10-day journey that will take them on an extended loop around the moon and back to Earth.<\/p>\n Together, they will observe the moon\u2019s elusive farside and perform critical tests that will help form the basis for Artemis III\u2014NASA\u2019s planned mission to, by 2028, return humans to the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note (2\/20\/26): This article was updated after posting to include additional information from NASA. The text was previously amended to correct Jeremy Hansen\u2019s name. This is a developing story and may be updated further.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. 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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 20, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm NASA just passed a major milestone on its mission to return humans to the moon After completing a second \u201cwet dress rehearsal\u201d of its upcoming moon mission, NASA said it is targeting a March 6 launch date for Artemis II By Claire Cameron The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[7387,9762,1387,3164,11244,1615,3331,2464,76],"class_list":{"0":"post-44857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-artemis","9":"tag-completes","10":"tag-critical","11":"tag-launch","12":"tag-march","13":"tag-moon","14":"tag-nasa","15":"tag-targeted","16":"tag-test"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44857","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=44857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/h2>\n