NASA could be sending a crew on the Orion spacecraft out past the moon in less than a month if everything falls into place. But first the agency has to get its rocket to the launch pad. That could as early as next Saturday when the mobile launcher topped with the Space Launch System rocket and Orion could make the four-mile slow roll atop the crawler-transporter 2 from the Vehicle Assembly

SLS and the Orion spacecraft are fully stacked together inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center. Once final tests are complete, the launch vehicle will be rolled out onto the pad at Launch Complex-39A, which should take about 10 hours.

The Washington Monument lit up on New Year's Eve in celebration of the Artemis 2 moon mission as well as the 250th anniversary year of the Declaration of Independence.

NASA announced that the earliest launch window for Artemis II is Feb. 6, 2026, with 12 more possible dates available from February-April. The Artemis mission, a followup to the Apollo program, hopes to have astronauts back on the moon’s surface by 2027.

NASA says it is continuing to prepare for a possible Artemis 2 launch as soon as February, but with remarkably little publicity for the historic mission.

🚨Mission Update: Rollout for Artemis II is less than two weeks away.This milestone begins final, system-wide testing as NASA prepares to send astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, with a launch window opening as soon as February 6. pic.twitter.com/gKRqUXIfMg January 2, 2026

NASA Officials say final system testing could soon begin on the mission set to send astronauts around the moon for the first time in over 50 years.

A major step toward launch day is complete as NASA's Artemis II astronauts ran through a countdown demonstration test.

NASA has a history of leaving terrestrial squabbles at home. In 1975, the Apollo-Soyuz mission brought together two Cold War adversaries, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, for a “handshake in space.” Russians and Americans continue to work together on the International Space Station (ISS) even as war continues in Ukraine.

NASA has confirmed the upcoming milestones for its historic Artemis II mission—the first crewed flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, sending four astronauts on a lunar flyby for the first time in over 50 years—with rollout and Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) to set the stage for a potential launch in February.