Cold weather in Florida is pushing back the Artemis II launch

As a result of cold weather and windy conditions moving through Florida, NASA is now targeting Monday, February 2nd for a wet dress rehearsal of the Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Depending on how Monday’s rehearsal goes, NASA will potentially set a launch date for Artemis II. But as a result of the weather-related delays, NASA says February 6th and 7th “are no longer viable opportunities” for a launch. Sunday, February 8th will instead be the first potential window.

NASA originally planned to conduct the wet dress rehearsal for the rocket this weekend, which is currently stacked with the Orion spacecraft on Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center. The 49 hour rehearsal includes fueling the rocket (hence the term wet) and a simulated countdown that ends 33 seconds before launch. During the rehearsal NASA engineers will test emergency escape procedures at the launch site and collect data from the SLS. A full wet rehearsal must be completed before the Artemis II mission will be cleared for launch next week.

The Artemis I mission successfully launched on November 16th, 2022, and lasted a little over 25 days before splashing down back on Earth on December 11th, 2022. It was originally scheduled to launch in late 2016, but faced several delays over the years. The Artemis I mission was uncrewed and used to test the SLS rocket and Orion capsule in space. Artemis II will instead carry four astronauts — Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman — on a 10-day mission flying around the moon. Artemis III will be the first mission to land astronauts on the moon since Apollo 17 touched down on the lunar surface on December 11th, 1972.