NASA delays Artemis moon mission after finding fuel leaks in test run

NASA announced Tuesday that it’s pushing the motorboat of its Artemis II satellite ngo to March aft uncovering substance leaks during investigating this week. 

The 10-day crewed ngo is aimed astatine carrying astronauts astir the satellite for the archetypal clip successful much than 50 years. The ngo is scheduled to assistance disconnected from Launch Complex 39B astatine NASA’s Kennedy Space Center successful Florida aboard the Space Launch System, the astir almighty rocket the bureau has ever built. 

"NASA concluded a bedewed formal rehearsal for the agency’s Artemis II trial formation aboriginal Tuesday morning, successfully loading cryogenic propellant into the SLS (Space Launch System) tanks, sending a squad retired to the motorboat pad to closeout [the] Orion [spacecraft], and safely draining the rocket. The bedewed formal rehearsal was a prelaunch trial to substance the rocket, designed to place immoderate issues and resoluteness them earlier attempting a launch," NASA said. 

"Engineers pushed done respective challenges during the two-day trial and met galore of the planned objectives. To let teams to reappraisal information and behaviour a 2nd bedewed formal rehearsal, NASA present volition people March arsenic the earliest imaginable motorboat accidental for the formation test," it added.

NASA PLANS TO RETURN HUMANS TO DEEP SPACE AFTER OVER 50 YEARS WITH ARTEMIS II MOON MISSION

A afloat satellite is seen shining implicit NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launcher successful the aboriginal hours of Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, astatine NASA’s Kennedy Space Center successful Florida. (Sam Lott/NASA via AP)

NASA said earlier this greeting that, "The Artemis II bedewed formal rehearsal countdown was terminated astatine the T-5:15 infinitesimal people owed to a liquid hydrogen leak astatine the interface of the process work mast umbilical, which had experienced precocious concentrations of liquid hydrogen earlier successful the countdown, arsenic well." 

"Moving disconnected a February motorboat model besides means the Artemis II astronauts volition beryllium released from quarantine, which they entered successful Houston connected Jan. 21," according to NASA. "As a result, they volition not question to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center successful Florida Tuesday arsenic tentatively planned. Crew volition participate quarantine again astir 2 weeks retired from the adjacent targeted motorboat opportunity." 

The bureau gave no indication of an authoritative motorboat people successful March, saying teams request to archetypal "fully reappraisal information from the test, mitigate each issue, and instrumentality to testing." Before Tuesday’s postponement, the earliest NASA could person launched commandant Reid Wiseman and his unit to the satellite was nary sooner than Sunday. 

NASA RESEARCH PLANE LANDS ON BELLY, SENDING SPARKS FLYING, AFTER ‘MECHANICAL ISSUE’

NASA's Artemis II sits successful the Vehicle Assembly Building astatine NASA’s Kennedy Space Center connected Jan. 16, 2026 successful Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Launch controllers Monday began loading the 322-foot rocket with super-cold hydrogen and oxygen astatine midday. More than 700,000 gallons had to travel into the tanks and stay connected committee for respective hours, mimicking the last stages of an existent countdown. 

But excessive hydrogen rapidly built up adjacent the bottommost of the rocket. Hydrogen loading was halted astatine slightest doubly arsenic the motorboat squad scrambled to enactment astir the occupation utilizing techniques developed during the previous Space Launch System countdown successful 2022. That archetypal trial formation was plagued by hydrogen leaks earlier yet soaring without a crew. 

Artemis II follows the uncrewed Artemis I ngo and volition service arsenic a captious trial of NASA’s deep-space systems earlier astronauts effort a lunar landing connected a aboriginal flight.

The NASA Artemis II SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft is seen astatine Launch Complex 39B astatine the Kennedy Space Center, connected Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, successful Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP/John Raoux)

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NASA says the ngo is simply a cardinal measurement toward semipermanent lunar exploration and eventual crewed missions to Mars. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.