The launch team will begin fueling the 32-story rocket Wednesday morning for an evening send-off.
The NASA Artemis II SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft is seen at Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — After weeks of fuel leaks and other issues, NASA faced a trouble-free countdown Tuesday on the eve of astronauts’was doing well on the pad, and the weather looked promising.
Forecasters put the odds of favorable conditions at 80%.will become the first lunar visitors since Apollo 17 in 1972. They’ll zip around the moon without landing or even orbiting, and come straight back. It’s the closest NASA has come to launching Artemis II. Hydrogen fuel leaks bumped the flight from February to March, then clogged helium lines pushed it to April. The space agency has only a handful of days every month to send the three Americans and one Canadian to the moon. This photo provided by NASA shows NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander, from left, Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II mission specialist, right, in a group photograph as they visit NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, Monday, March 30, 2026, at Launch Complex 39B of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Photographers set up remote cameras to capture the launch of NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft is seen at Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. This photo provided by NASA shows NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander, from left, Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II mission specialist, right, in a group photograph as they visit NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, Monday, March 30, 2026, at Launch Complex 39B of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Confident that all of these problems are fixed, the launch team plans to begin fueling the 32-story Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday morning for an evening send-off. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Another longtime Denver-area brewery set to close its doors in JuneA day in the life of a child-free Coloradan — and the child care that makes it possibleWolf wandered through parts of Jefferson, Douglas counties in March Denver’s $1 billion road overhaul would cut space for cars, boost public transit. Critics say it will make traffic worse. Denver's $1 billion road overhaul would cut space for cars, boost public transit. Critics say it will make traffic worse.Broncos owner Greg Penner turns up pressure on new stadium talks, calls Burnham Yard timeline 'ambitious'
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