The Artemis II rollout is scheduled to resume Thursday evening, March 19, 2026, as NASA moves its Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft back to the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida after completing repairs.
The agency is targeting a liftoff as early as April 1, 2026, sending four astronauts on a 10-day trip that loops around the moon and returns to Earth.
The 322-foot-tall rocket stack will travel about 4 miles from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Pad 39B on a crawler-transporter, a slow overnight move that is expected to take roughly 12 hours. NASA has said the rollout is the final major ground milestone before pad processing resumes and countdown work accelerates.
Artemis II rollout from the VAB to Pad 39B
The Artemis II rollout is a deliberate, step-by-step operation. NASA’s crawler-transporter carries the fully assembled rocket, Orion capsule and mobile launcher as one integrated unit. The speed is about 1 mph, slow enough to limit vibration and keep the stack stable as it climbs the pad approach.
NASA has described the plan in a March 18 mission update, including the targeted start time and the overnight schedule, in its post on final rollout preparations. The work is sensitive to wind, lightning rules and hardware status, so teams keep the timeline flexible even when a target start time is set.
Once the rocket arrives at Pad 39B, crews reconnect ground umbilicals, power and data lines, then begin a new set of system checks. For a crewed flight, those checks also emphasize crew safety interfaces, communications, escape and recovery readiness, and the specific procedures needed to support astronauts during the final hours before launch.
Why NASA rolled back the SLS rocket for repairs
NASA first rolled the Artemis II stack to the pad in mid-January, then brought it back to the hangar after engineers found a blockage in the flow of helium needed for launch operations. While in the Vehicle Assembly Building, teams replaced a seal in a line that feeds helium from ground systems into the rocket, along with batteries on the rocket and Orion, and performed follow-on testing.
Helium is used in multiple roles on large launch vehicles, including pressurizing systems that help move propellants and maintain stability during fueling. When ground testing indicates that a flow path is restricted, NASA typically treats it as a must-fix item because it can affect launch-day operations and contingency options.
The repair decision followed a fueling test and launch-day walkthrough known as a wet dress rehearsal. NASA had already worked through other issues earlier in the campaign, including hydrogen leaks during a previous rehearsal attempt.
Bringing the rocket back to the hangar gave technicians better access and reduced constraints compared with doing major work at the pad.
NASA’s managers later held a flight readiness review and formally certified the rocket and spacecraft for flight.
