NASA Successfully Rolls Back Artemis II SLS Rocket And Orion Spacecraft Into Vehicle Assembly Building

 

 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has successfully rolled back the Artemis II mission’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft. These space vehicles have been rolled back from Launch Pad 39B to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. It was done as a new technical problem emerged, apart from the termination of the first wet dress rehearsal, which led to the leakage of liquid hydrogen.

 

NASA stated that the rollback commenced on February 25, 2026, at 7:58 PM IST (9:28 AM EST) and was expected to take about 12 hours for completion. The massive rocket and spacecraft were rolled back approximately 6.4 km (4 miles) from the launchpad to the hangar. Notably, NASA announced the rollback of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft on February 23, 2026.

 

On February 21, 2026, NASA engineers detected an interruption in the flow of helium to the SLS rocket’s upper stage. In the evening, the Artemis II mission managers acted quickly and decided to remove the installed platforms before the strong winds arrived along Florida’s Space Coast. However, the reason for the problem has yet to be found out. Since the Artemis II space vehicles have arrived at the VAB, technicians will solve the problem and find out the root cause.

 

Earlier, on February 20, 2026, NASA mentioned that it aimed to launch the Artemis II mission on March 6, 2026. However, the mission has been delayed and shifted to April’s launch window due to the interruption of helium flow to the rocket's upper stage.

 

NASA’s Artemis II mission crew, including three NASA astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch — and a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, were released from quarantine on February 21, 2026.

 

The Artemis II mission will launch a four-member astronaut crew for a 10-day space journey. It will be the first crewed flight to travel beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Artemis II mission neither attempts a lunar landing nor will it enter lunar orbit. The space mission will attempt a moon flyby and follow a free-return trajectory.