Nasa's ambitious Moon mission delayed: Artemis II rocket rolled back for repairs

Nasa on Wednesday announced that it has begun rolling its grounded Artemis II moon rocket and Orion spacecraft off the launch pad and back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center for additional repairs, following the emergence of a new technical problem.

The 322‑foot (98‑metre) Space Launch System (SLS) rocket had remained at Launch Complex 39B for about a month in preparation for liftoff, but engineers discovered a malfunction in the rocket’s helium pressurisation system that required more detailed inspection and troubleshooting.

Nasa said the slow‑motion rollback began at about 9.28 am EST and will take roughly 12 hours as the massive stack crawls the roughly 4‑mile (6.4‑km) distance back to the hangar.

“Teams are rolling the Artemis II rocket and spacecraft off the launch pad and back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. There, we will work to fix a helium flow issue,” Nasa wrote in an X post announcing the move.


The rollback will be streamed live on Nasa’s YouTube channel, giving space enthusiasts and the public a full‑day view of the trek and recovery operations.

The mission, which aims to send four astronauts on a mission around of the moon, was already delayed last month due to hydrogen fuel leaks during earlier tests. With the rollback now underway, Nasa officials say the March launch window is out of reach.

Because of the delay, the four Artemis II astronauts were in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night as special guests at US President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, no longer needing to quarantine ahead of flight preparations.

According to Nasa, Artemis II mission will be the first crewed flight of the Artemis programme. It aims to send astronauts on a lunar flyby, and marks a key step toward a long-term return of humans to the Moon.