Last mentioned: Mar 24, 2026
Wet Dress Rehearsal
Full propellant loading and countdown practice at the pad.
Artemis I Success
Uncrewed Orion spacecraft completes 25-day mission around the Moon.
Artemis I Success
Uncrewed SLS and Orion successfully complete lunar orbit mission.
Artemis I Launch
Successful uncrewed flight of SLS and Orion to lunar orbit.
Artemis 1 Success
Uncrewed SLS and Orion mission successfully tests lunar orbit and return.
Artemis I Success
Uncrewed SLS and Orion complete maiden flight around the Moon.
Flight Clearance
NASA officially clears the rocket and spacecraft for crewed flight.
Artemis 2 Rollout
Rocket moves to Launch Pad 39B for final pre-flight testing.
Targeted Artemis II Launch
First crewed mission of the Artemis program (Projected).
Target Launch
Projected window for the Artemis 2 crewed lunar flyby mission.
Schedule Realignment
NASA officially delays Artemis II crewed flight to September 2025 citing safety concerns.
Second Fueling Test
Critical wet dress rehearsal to validate hardware for crewed flight.
VAB Rollback
NASA initiates return to VAB for critical repairs after pad testing identifies technical issues.
Artemis II Launch
First crewed flight of the SLS and Orion on a lunar flyby mission.
Scheduled Launch
Artemis II set to launch from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B.
Artemis III Landing
Planned return of humans to the lunar surface.
Artemis III
Planned mission to land the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface.
Launch Window Opens
The earliest possible date for the Artemis mission launch.
Final Pad Checkouts
Engineers begin integrated testing of the rocket and ground systems.
Rollout to Pad 39B
The SLS rocket leaves the VAB for the launch pad.
NASA is entering the final countdown for Artemis II, a historic mission scheduled for April 2026 that will send four astronauts on a lunar flyby. This mission serves as the critical bridge between the uncrewed Artemis I test and the eventual return of humans to the lunar surface.
NASA has successfully transported its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket back to Launch Pad 39B following critical repairs in the Vehicle Assembly Building. The move sets the stage for a high-stakes lunar mission window opening in early April, marking a pivotal moment for the Artemis program.
NASA has confirmed the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 2 mission will return to Launch Pad 39B on March 20. This move marks a critical transition from assembly to final pre-launch operations for the first crewed lunar mission in over half a century.
NASA has officially cleared the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission, scheduled for April 2026. This decision follows a rigorous period of repairs and testing to address technical anomalies discovered during the mission's preparation phase.
NASA has initiated the rollback of the Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) from Launch Pad 39B to the Vehicle Assembly Building following the identification of technical issues requiring a controlled environment. This maneuver signals a potential shift in the launch window for the first crewed lunar mission in over half a century.
NASA has officially delayed its upcoming lunar mission by approximately 30 days, marking the latest in a series of setbacks for the Artemis program. The delay underscores the persistent technical and logistical challenges of returning humans to the lunar surface.
NASA has initiated its second major rocket fueling test for the Artemis program, a pivotal milestone that will dictate the launch window for the next crewed lunar mission. This technical validation is essential for ensuring the integrity of the Space Launch System (SLS) and the safety of the astronauts slated for the historic journey.
This page surfaces every story mentioning Space Launch System (SLS) across our space & defense coverage. We track each entity's appearance over time so readers can trace how the narrative evolves — which developments are isolated incidents, which build into longer arcs, and which reframe how operators in the space think about the entity. Story selection uses the same multi-source verification gate applied across the rest of our coverage.
Read our editorial methodology for how we identify, deduplicate, and score entity references. Our glossary defines the technical terms used across stories on this page, and our trends index contextualizes individual developments against the longer-running space & defense beat. Cross-entity comparisons live on our compare view.
| What you see | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Story count | Number of distinct stories where Space Launch System (SLS) was a primary or referenced actor. |
| Recency clustering | Whether mentions are concentrated in a recent window (a news cycle) or distributed (a sustained arc). |
| Sentiment distribution | Aggregate sentiment of the stories mentioning this entity, weighted by impact score. |
| Cross-niche links | When the same entity surfaces in our sibling networks, we link to those views to enrich context. |