NASA eyes March 6 for Artemis II lunar mission after successful dress rehearsal

NASA officials said Friday they are hoping to launch four astronauts deep into space on March 6, as part of its Artemis II lunar mission, after successfully completing a wet dress rehearsal earlier this week.

Officials warned certain steps will still need to be completed before they can launch in two weeks, including a flight readiness review, where mission managers and top NASA officials will formally certify the rocket and spacecraft for flight.

The final results of Thursday's rehearsal also still need to come in before the mission is approved, but if given the go-ahead, NASA will launch astronauts around the moon for the first time since the Apollo program ended over 50 years ago.

“Those things are all in front of us,” Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, told reporters in a news briefing. “We need to successfully navigate all of those. But assuming that happens, it puts us in a very good position to target March 6.”

The new expected launch date comes after NASA delayed the mission last month because of issues during the first wet dress rehearsal. NASA said it encountered several issues during the test, including running into problems with hydrogen leaks while filling up Artemis II’s Space Launch System rocket with propellant.

The four astronauts who are participating in the 10-day lunar mission are NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The group will go into quarantine Friday afternoon in Houston.