NASA delays Artemis II moon rocket mission as ‘rare arctic outbreak’ pushes as far south as Florida

SpaceX launches NASA, NOAA abstraction upwind missions

FILE - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is seen blasting disconnected from Kennedy Space Center, Florida connected Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025 arsenic the prima rises supra the Atlantic Ocean. The ngo launches 3 satellites designed to amended abstraction upwind forecasting.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA has pushed backmost the February motorboat of Artemis 2 to March aft ending a captious substance trial aboriginal Tuesday morning, which was analyzable by a liquid hydrogen leak and cold temperatures owed to the uncommon Arctic outbreak that has gripped Florida.

FREEZING IN FLORIDA: ARCTIC CHILL REACHES SUNSHINE STATE, BREAKING RECORDS AND CAUSING POWER DISRUPTIONS

A afloat satellite rises arsenic the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft, integrated for the Artemis II mission, are seen astatine Launch Pad 39B astatine the Kennedy Space Center successful Cape Canaveral, Florida, connected February 1, 2026 up of the archetypal crewed ngo to the Moon successful much than 50 years. 

((Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images) / Getty Images)

Artemis 2 would beryllium the archetypal crewed ngo to instrumentality to the Moon since Apollo 17 successful 1972. The 10-day ngo would spot a unit of 4 trial NASA's caller Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft successful a travel astir the Moon, a cardinal measurement successful the abstraction agency's extremity of harmless and businesslike exploration of the Moon and yet Mars.

NASA engineers battled acold upwind crossed the two-day bedewed formal rehearsal, which began connected Saturday night.

NASA’S ARTEMIS II WILL TAKE ITS FIRST CREWED MISSION AROUND THE MOON IN OVER 50 YEARS

The pre-launch trial was designed to substance the Space Launch System and place method issues earlier launch.

"Leading up to, and passim tanking operations connected Feb. 2, engineers monitored however acold upwind astatine Kennedy impacted systems and enactment procedures successful spot to support hardware safe," NASA said successful a Tuesday quality release.

NASA DELAYS ARTEMIS II MOON LAUNCH DUE TO RARE ARCTIC OUTBREAK IN FLORIDA

"Cold temperatures caused a precocious commencement to tanking operations, arsenic it took clip to bring immoderate interfaces to acceptable temperatures earlier propellant loading operations began."

A displacement of the polar vortex combined with the aftermath of a historical nor'easter disconnected the Carolina seashore helped usher successful record-breaking debased temperatures crossed Florida implicit the weekend.

Both Miami and Fort Lauderdale plummeted to 35 degrees, portion Orlando got down to 25 degrees Sunday.

Temperatures astatine the adjacent NASA Shuttle Landing Facility successful Titusville, Florida dipped beneath freezing overnight Monday.

NASA said cryogenic propellant was successfully loaded into the SLS, but engineers spent respective hours troubleshooting a liquid hydrogen leak.

Eventually, the bedewed formal rehearsal was automatically chopped abbreviated aboriginal Tuesday astatine 5 minutes and 15 seconds earlier the scheduled extremity of the trial erstwhile computers detected "a spike successful the liquid hydrogen leak rate."

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said aboriginal Tuesday that these kinds of complications are the nonstop intent of the bedewed formal rehearsal.

Apollo 17 - NASA, 1972. The Last Man connected the Moon: Eugene Cernan poses by the American emblem successful his A7L spacesuit, December 1972. Artist NASA. 

((Photo by Heritage Space/Heritage Images via Getty Images) / Getty Images)

"As always, information remains our apical priority, for our astronauts, our workforce, our systems, and the public," Isaacman said.

"Getting this ngo close means returning to the Moon to enactment and a aboriginal to Artemis 100 and beyond," Isaacman added.

The results of the trial volition beryllium discussed astatine a quality league scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

According to NASA, March is present the earliest imaginable motorboat time for the mission.