successfully rehearses Artemis – NASA said on Thursday (February 19, 2026) that it successfully rehearsed the launch of its giant SLS rocket, which will send astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. Technical problems in early February disrupted the so-called wet dress rehearsal prior to launch of the Artemis 2 mission. But on Thursday (February 19, 2026), the US space agency reported that things proceeded as planned, with the countdown ending at “T-29 seconds”.

It is expected that NASA will now decide on a definite date for the mission. The agency said it will brief the media on Friday (February 20, 2026). Wet dress rehearsals are conducted under realistic conditions – with full rocket tanks and technical checks – at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in which engineers practice the maneuvers required to execute the actual launch.

Setbacks in February, which also included a liquid hydrogen leak, dashed hopes for lift-off this month, pushing the earliest launch date to March 6. The Artemis 2 mission will be the first crewed mission to fly past the Moon in more than 50 years, with three Americans and one Canadian participating.