Before NASA can decide a rocket launch date for Artemis 2, the giant SLS rocket has to ace a critical fueling test known as a wet dress rehearsal.

NASA is still moving forward with tentatively launching as soon as February 6. Here’s what needs to happen between now and then.

The rocket is about to traverse four miles to the launchpad — at about 1 mph.

No one in NASA’s Artemis II crew had been born when astronauts last ventured into deep space for the final Apollo program Moon landing in 1972. For the last half-century, human space efforts have focused on science research and technology initiatives aboard low-Earth-orbit spacecraft, culminating with the Inter-national Space Station.

NASA is going back to the moon with the Artemis II mission, 54 years after they last sent humans to the lunar realm with the last of the Apollo missions. Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket yet by the agency,

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket is rolled out to Launch Complex 39B ahead of the Artemis II moon mission on Jan. 17, 2026. (T.J. Muscaro/The Epoch Times)