Will Artemis 2 launch toward the moon next month? Watch NASA's mission update today

NASA's Artemis II Flight Readiness News Conference (March 12, 2026) - YouTube

NASA will give an update about its Artemis 2 moon launch plans today (March 12), and you can watch it live.

Article continues below

a big orange rocket stands at a launch pad beneath blue skies — NASA's Artemis 2 SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft stand vertical on mobile launcher 1 at Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 10, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky)

artemis 2 mission badge — NASA's Artemis 2 SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft stand vertical on mobile launcher 1 at Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 10, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky)

Artemis 2 will send four astronauts — NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen — on a 10-day trip around the moon and back home again. It will be the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

NASA had hoped to launch Artemis 2 last month, and seemed on track to do so after successfully completing a fueling test on KSC's Pad 39B in late February.

Just after that test, however, a problem popped up — an interruption in the flow of helium in the upper stage of Artemis 2's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. So the mission team rolled the Artemis 2 stack off Pad 39B and back to KSC's cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for repairs.

Last week, NASA announced that this work was going well, potentially keeping Artemis 2 on track for launch in the next available window, which opens on April 1.

We'll learn more during today's update, which will come after completion of the Artemis 2 flight readiness review. Participants in the briefing are:

Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate
John Honeycutt, chair, Artemis 2 Mission Management Team
Shawn Quinn, manager, Exploration Ground Systems Program
Norm Knight, director, Flight Operations Directorate

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.