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5d ago

NASA Fixes Artemis II Helium Fault, Targets April Launch as Artemis Plan Is Recast

The overhaul prioritizes risk reduction through standardized SLS flights with a first landing now set for 2028.

The launch vehicle stage adapter — which connects the SLS core stage to the upper stage — is seen here during stacking operations in the Vehicle Assembly Building in April 2025. It was inside this adapter that technicians installed temporary access platforms to reach and repair the dislodged helium seal that forced Artemis 2's rollback last month. Credit: NASA/Isaac Watson
The Orion spacecraft points at the moon from its perch atop the Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket as it was rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on February 25, 2026.
These images and videos show senior NASA leadership joining industry partners, media, and members of the Artemis II crew July 16 as teams loaded the first core stage that will help launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for the agency’s Artemis II mission. The move marked the first time a fully assembled Moon rocket stage for a crewed mission has rolled out from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans since the Apollo Program. Leaders gathered at Michoud on July 16, 2024, which coincides with the 55th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11. The core stage was moved onto the agency’s Pegasus barge, where it will be ferried to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The core stage for the SLS mega rocket is the largest stage NASA has ever produced. At 212 feet tall, the stage consists of five major elements, including two huge propellant tanks that collectively hold more than 733,000 gallons of super chilled liquid propellant to feed four RS-25 engines at its base. During launch and flight, the stage will operate for just over eight minutes, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help send a crew of four astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft onward to the Moon. NASA is working to land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft and Gateway in orbit around the Moon and commercial human landing systems, next-generation space, next-generational spacesuits, and rovers on the lunar surface. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.
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Overview

  • Engineers traced the helium issue to a dislodged quick‑disconnect seal in the SLS upper stage, reseated it, and validated the fix with helium flow tests.
  • With repairs complete, NASA is replacing flight termination and other batteries and addressing an oxygen‑line seal before rolling the rocket back to Pad 39B.
  • Artemis II launch opportunities now open April 1 with additional windows on April 3–6 and April 30, keeping an April timeline in play if pad checks hold.
  • NASA has restructured near‑term missions: Artemis III becomes a low‑Earth‑orbit rendezvous and docking rehearsal with commercial landers and spacesuit testing, while the first lunar landing shifts to Artemis IV in 2028.
  • The agency is canceling the Exploration Upper Stage, de‑prioritizing Mobile Launcher 2, and standardizing on the ICPS/Block 1 SLS to raise flight cadence toward roughly 10 months and enable yearly surface missions after 2028.