NASA delays the first Artemis moonshot with astronauts because of extreme cold at the launch site

This photo provided by NASA shows the Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop a mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Jim Ross/NASA via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA has delayed astronauts’ upcoming trip to the moon because of near-freezing temperatures expected at the launch site.

The first Artemis moonshot with a crew is now targeted for no earlier than Feb. 8, two days later than planned.

NASA was all set to conduct a fueling test of the 322-foot (98-meter) moon rocket on Saturday, but called everything off late Thursday because of the expected cold.

The critical dress rehearsal is now set for Monday, weather permitting. The change leaves NASA with only three days in February to send four astronauts around the moon and back, before slipping into March.

“Any additional delays would result in a day for day change,” NASA said in a statement Friday.

Heaters are keeping the Orion capsule warm atop the rocket, officials said, and rocket-purging systems are also being adapted to the cold.

Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew remain in quarantine in Houston and their arrival at Kennedy Space Center in Florida is uncertain.

NASA has only a handful of days any given month to launch its first lunar crew in more than half a century. Apollo 17 closed out that storied moon exploration program in 1972.

Complicating matters is the need to launch a fresh crew to the International Space Station as soon as possible, a mission accelerated because of the last crew’s early return for medical reasons.

The moonshot will take priority if it can get off by Feb. 11, the last possible launch date for the month, mission managers said Friday.

If that happens, the next station crew will have to wait until the Artemis astronauts are back on Earth before launching later in the month.

___

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.