NASA Targets March 6 for Artemis II Moon Mission

Agency official Lori Glaze says the space agency is in ‘very good position’ to launch early next month.

Jack Daleo

Saturday, February 21, 2026 at 09:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft stand vertical at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February 10. [Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky]

Key Takeaways:

NASA is now targeting March 6 for the Artemis II crewed mission to orbit the Moon, following a "very, very smoothly" executed wet dress rehearsal that addressed prior technical issues.
The four-person crew (three NASA and one Canadian Space Agency astronaut) has entered quarantine in preparation for the 10-day mission, which aims to validate the SLS and Orion systems in deep space.
The March 6 launch is contingent on final data review and upcoming flight readiness checks, with backup launch opportunities scheduled throughout March and early April.

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After moving off an early February launch window for Artemis II—a four-person sojourn around the moon and back—NASA on Friday said it hopes to launch the mission on March 6.

Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said that a wet dress rehearsal (WDR) for Artemis II “went very, very smoothly”—smooth enough that it could launch within two weeks.