NASA targets April 1, 2026 launch date for Artemis II crewed moon mission

NASA is targeting an April 1 launch for its Artemis II mission around the moon, marking the first crewed lunar flight since Apollo in 1972.

Officials said Thursday they completed the Flight Readiness Review (FRR) and are set to roll the rocket back to the pad on March 19, followed by final configuration for launch.

A potential launch for the 10-day mission is scheduled for 6:24 p.m. ET on April 1, with a backup date of April 2 at 7:22 p.m.

“At the conclusion of the FRR, all the teams polled go to launch and fly Artemis II around the moon, pending completion of some of the work before we roll out to the launch pad,” Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said at a news conference at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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“It’s a test flight and it is not without risk, but our team and our hardware are ready,” Glaze added.

Artemis II had been scheduled to launch in early February, but the mission was delayed after fuel leaks were discovered during a test run. A helium leak was later identified at the end of the month. The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket was transferred from the launchpad back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for repairs that are nearly complete.

John Honeycutt, chair of the Artemis II Mission Management Team, said the mission’s success odds range from one in two to one in 50 when asked about the risks of Artemis II.

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Honeycutt later said he does not want the mission’s success viewed as a 50-50 proposition.

“If you look at the data over time, over the lifespan of building new rockets, right, the data would show you that one out of two is successful. You’re only successful 50% of the time,” Honeycutt said. “I think we’re in a much better position than that.”

“I don’t want people to take that as being that we should be scared to go fly, because we’re not scared to go fly,” he added. “We do an outstanding job of understanding the risk, buying down the risk, mitigating the risk and putting together controls to manage the risk.”

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NASA also said it will not conduct another “wet dress rehearsal,” a prelaunch fueling test for Artemis II.

“When we tank the vehicle the very next time, I would like it to be on a day that we could actually launch. I would like to do it on launch day,” Glaze said. “And if we are able to successfully fully tank the vehicle, I want to be able to go to launch.”

She added that NASA does not want to use up any days in its April launch window for a wet dress rehearsal.

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The Artemis program was first established by President Donald Trump during his first term in December 2017.

The four astronauts involved in Artemis II — Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen — are expected to orbit the moon before returning home in what would be the farthest human spaceflight ever.

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NASA has said Artemis III, Artemis IV and Artemis V are expected to launch before the end of Trump’s current term, with Artemis IV and V aiming to return astronauts to the moon’s surface. 

Fox News Digital’s Preston Mizell and Brie Stimson contributed to this report.