NASA moved its grounded Artemis II moon rocket from the launch pad back to its hangar at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday for more repairs, according to NASA’s rollout of the issue and its impact on the schedule. The move meant a slow, all-day trek for the rocket along the Kennedy Space Center complex.
The rocket involved is the 322-foot Space Launch System that had spent about a month at the pad ready for a potential liftoff attempt. That effort, however, did not proceed as planned after managers ordered a rollback over the weekend, bringing the rocket back after engineers identified problems that required additional work back at the Vehicle Assembly Building, about 4 miles away.
NASA linked the rollback order to a helium pressurization system malfunction, a problem that followed earlier concerns that had already pushed the mission back. The Artemis II launch team had also been dealing with hydrogen fuel leaks, which had already delayed the flight by about a month and shifted planners toward a March launch window.
With Wednesday’s move, the flight timing changed again. NASA said the Artemis II lunar fly-around by a U.S.-Canadian crew is delayed until at least April.
The delay also changed the logistics for the astronauts themselves. All four Artemis II astronauts were at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night as invited guests for President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, NASA said, adding that the flight delay meant they no longer needed to quarantine.
NASA’s next steps focus on completing the repairs before the rocket can return to the pad for another launch attempt. The Wednesday rollback underscores how closely schedule planning for Artemis II continues to track what engineers find on the ground during late-stage checks of rocket systems.