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March 12, 2026<\/p>\n
3 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n NASA says teams are \u2018go\u2019 for fresh Artemis II moon launch attempt but admits risks remain<\/p>\n NASA is planning to roll its moon mission rocket back out later this month, with an April 1 target launch date<\/p>\n By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner<\/span><\/p>\n NASA is working to launch its Artemis II moon mission as soon as April 1, said Lori Glaze, one of the agency\u2019s acting associate administrators, at a press conference on Thursday. The mission has been delayed numerous times, including twice already this year\u2014most recently because of a safety issue with the rocket.<\/p>\n \u201cI am comfortable and the agency is comfortable with targeting April 1 as our first opportunity,\u201d she said, stressing that the date is subject to change depending on the amount of work needed to make the spacecraft flight-ready. \u201cAs always, we\u2019ll always be guided by what the hardware is telling us, and we will launch when we\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n Artemis II will carry four astronauts\u2014NASA\u2019s Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, and Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen\u2014on a record-breaking journey around the moon. Lofted to space by the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, NASA\u2019s Orion capsule will take those astronauts farther from Earth than any humans have gone before.<\/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 NASA officials at the conference emphasized astronaut safety is guiding their decisions. But John Honeycutt, chair of the Artemis II Mission Management Team, admitted that the data indicates that the likelihood of Artemis II going exactly to plan is just a little better than a coin toss.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the data over time, over the lifespan of just building new rockets, right, the data would show you that one out of two is successful. You’re only successful 50 percent of the time,\u201d Honeycutt said. \u201cI think we\u2019re in a much better position than that.\u201d<\/p>\n Astronaut safety was core to a recent Office of the Inspector General report released last week that found NASA had room for improvement on risk reduction in its ambitions to land humans back on the moon using the Human Landing System\u2014the agency\u2019s plan for moving astronauts from the lunar surface to orbit\u2014and especially for crew survival.<\/p>\n Glaze and Honeycutt emphasized that Artemis II will do something no other mission has done before\u2014and that brings unknown risks.<\/p>\n If NASA moves toward liftoff on April 1, the target time is 6:24 P.M. EDT, Glaze said. If that slips for any reason, the agency could also target a launch on April 2 at 7:22 P.M. EDT, she added. That addition means the agency will have a total of six potential launch dates in early April. Glaze also said that the agency will likely not attempt another \u201cwet dress rehearsal\u201d\u2014a critical test for launch readiness that involves filling the rocket with fuel and rehearsing the countdown that, in the past, has raised numerous problems with Artemis II.<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s upcoming mission has encountered multiple issues, from hardware snags to schedule delays to budget overruns. Last month NASA scrapped a March launch date for the rocket and moved it off the launchpad after the SLS encountered helium flow issues during a wet dress rehearsal\u2014it had previously experienced hydrogen leaks and other problems in an earlier wet dress that had caused its target launch to slip once already this year. Similar issues delayed its predecessor, Artemis I, by months.<\/p>\n Shawn Quinn, manager of NASA\u2019s Exploration Ground Systems Program, said that the helium problem stemmed from a seal blocking the flow of helium and that it has been fixed. Artemis II will likely roll back out to the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Fla., by March 19, he added.<\/p>\n And all these delays have compounded on the agency\u2019s plans to return astronauts to the moon. Last month NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced that Artemis III, originally envisaged as a crewed lunar landing, would actually be confined to another trip to orbit. The agency is now targeting 2028 and Artemis IV to land astronauts on the moon for the first time in more than half a century.<\/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":" March 12, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm NASA says teams are \u2018go\u2019 for fresh Artemis II moon launch attempt but admits risks remain NASA is planning to roll its moon mission rocket back out later this month, with an April 1 target launch date By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[4538,7387,4310,3000,3164,1615,3331,3665,982],"class_list":{"0":"post-46591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-admits","9":"tag-artemis","10":"tag-attempt","11":"tag-fresh","12":"tag-launch","13":"tag-moon","14":"tag-nasa","15":"tag-remain","16":"tag-risks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46591","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=46591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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