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 Orion spacecraft completes 25-day mission around the Moon.
Artemis I Success
Uncrewed SLS and Orion successfully complete lunar orbit mission.
Artemis I Success
Uncrewed SLS and Orion mission successfully completes lunar orbit.
Artemis I Success
Uncrewed SLS and Orion mission successfully orbits the Moon and returns to Earth.
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.
Target Launch
Scheduled liftoff for the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years.
Flight Clearance
NASA officially clears the rocket and spacecraft for crewed flight.
VAB Rollback
Planned return to the Vehicle Assembly Building for hardware repairs.
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.
Second Delay
Mission timeline moves to April 2026 due to Orion heat shield and life support issues.
First Major Delay
NASA pushes Artemis II from late 2024 to September 2025 citing safety concerns.
Malfunction Detected
Helium system failure identified during launch pad preparations.
Current Delay
New repairs identified for the SLS rocket core stage, delaying the mission indefinitely.
Second Fueling Test
Critical wet dress rehearsal to validate hardware for crewed flight.
Final Integration
Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket undergo final stacking and testing at KSC.
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 officially postponed the Artemis II crewed lunar mission to April 2026 after a malfunction was detected in the rocket's helium system. The Space Launch System (SLS) stack must be rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs, marking a significant setback for the lunar program's timeline.
NASA has officially postponed the Artemis II crewed lunar flyby mission, the first human-crewed flight of the Space Launch System (SLS), due to newly identified repair requirements on the rocket. This latest setback pushes the mission's timeline further into the late 2020s, complicating the broader goal of returning humans to the lunar surface.
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 officially targeted March 6 for the launch of Artemis II, the first crewed mission of the Artemis program. The mission will carry four astronauts on a high-speed lunar flyby, marking the first human voyage to the vicinity of the Moon in over half a century.
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 Orion 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 Orion 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. |