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.

NASA’s Artemis II mission is fast approaching, with the launch window set to open in early February. The US space agency is now preparing its Space Launch System (SLS) for its second-ever launch, after Artemis I in November 2022. A new image shows special decal work on the launch vehicle’s solid rocket boosters.

Whether Artemis ultimately fulfills its promise of sustained lunar exploration, or is reshaped by politics, budgets and competition with China, the program's first crewed flight around the moon will mark a definitive turning point. In 2026, humanity isn't just planning to return to lunar space — it's actually going.

For reentering the Earth, the crew will let gravity do its job. They will endure speed and temperature on their journey back home before splashing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. At the site, a recovery team will be awaiting the team's arrival and will bring the crew members back to the shore.

Impressive scenes show the huge rocket set to carry astronauts around the Moon next month. NASA has shown off final preparation for the Artemis II mission to return humans to the vicinity of the Moon for the first time in more than half a century.

The Artemis III follow-up mission plans to do an actual crewed landing, but that's run into some scheduling problems. The initial plan was to use a modified version of SpaceX's Starship, specially developed for NASA under the Human Lander System (HLS) program.

The most exciting story in space flight this decade has been NASA's announcement of the Artemis program, which aims to land humans on the moon for the first time in over 50 years. The program has multiple stages, and the first, Artemis I, already went ...

Four astronauts in training to fly around the moon early next year strapped into their Orion spacecraft this weekend for a dress rehearsal countdown in a major milestone toward launch.