Artemis II in the Vehicle Assembly Building. Photo: NASA
NASA has published its launch window availability for Artemis II, the agency’s first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years, with opportunities spanning February through April 2026. The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft are scheduled to roll out from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39B NET January 17th.
The four-mile journey aboard Crawler-Transporter 2 will take up to 12 hours before the integrated launch structure and rocket arrive at their final destination.
After Artemis II is rolled out to LC39B, engineers and technicians will start pad integration tasks, including connecting essential ground support equipment such as electrical lines, environmental control system ducts, and cryogenic propellant feeds. After those tasks are successfully completed, teams will then power up all integrated systems for the first time at the pad.
All windows are 120 minutes, except for March 11th, which offers a slightly shorter 115-minute window.
Lighting Constraints Drive Window Selection
The published windows reflect careful consideration of lighting conditions, so that Orion is not in darkness for more than 90 minutes at a time post-launch, therefore allowing its solar arrays to keep generating power and the spacecraft to stay within its thermal limits. Dates that would put Orion into extended eclipses are removed from consideration.
Another consideration is that the launch window constraints ensure optimal conditions for tracking cameras and abort scenarios during the critical ascent phase.
NASA notes all dates remain subject to adjustments as the mission progresses through final preparations.
First Launch Opportunities Open February 6
The earliest available launch window opens on February 6, 2026, at 9:41 pm ET, with a 2-hour window. Launch opportunities continue through February 11th, followed by a brief gap, then resume mid-month. Each window in the February series shifts progressively later into the night, with the final February opportunity on the 11th occurring at 1:05 AM EST.
Should weather or technical issues prevent a February launch, NASA has identified windows throughout March and April. The March series begins on the 6th at 8:29 PM ET, while April windows open as early as 6:24 PM ET on April 1st—notably the only daytime launch opportunity in the released schedule, occurring approximately 1.3 hours before sunset.
Here’s a photo of the Apollo 14 capsule that I am licensing under an Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution License. Feel free to include it in your blog posts or whatever, just give proper attribution.
Artist conception of a lunar rover in action. Graphic: NASA
NASA has selected Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Astrolab to design a Lunar Terrain Vehicle, the agency announced earlier today in a press conference held in Houston. Each company named today will begin with a feasibility task order, which will be a year-long special study to develop their system to meet NASA’s requirements through the preliminary design maturity project.
Afterward one or more qualifying companies will be chosen to complete a demonstration mission, where it/they will continue developing the LTV, deliver it to the surface of the Moon, and validate its performance and safety prior to Artemis V, the first mission planned to take advantage of the LTV. While they left the door open today for more than one, NASA stated in a press release today that they anticipate making an award to only one provider for the demonstration.
Artemis V is currently planned for no earlier than 2029.
Intuitive Machines Reaction
Intuitive Machines rendering of their “Moon Racer” LTV, one of the projects selected for additional development. Graphic: Intuitive Machines
“This procurement strategically aligns with the Company’s flight-proven capability to deliver payloads to the surface of the Moon under the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, further solidifying our position as a proven commercial contractor in lunar exploration,” said Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus in a press release issued by the company today. “Our global team is on a path to provide essential lunar infrastructure services to NASA in a project that would allow the Company to retain ownership of the vehicle for commercial utilization during periods of non-NASA activity over approximately ten years of lunar surface activity.”
Astrolab Reaction
Astrolab FLEX rover concept. Photo: Astrolab
“Astrolab is honored to have its FLEX rover selected by NASA to participate in the development of creating a Lunar Terrain Vehicle for the Artemis Campaign,” said Jaret Matthews, founder & CEO, Astrolab in a press release issued today. “Our entire team, together with our business partners, are committed to delivering to NASA an LTV that serves as a critical tool in the agency’s efforts to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon.”
“We’re excited to work with Astrolab and the entire team to revolutionize lunar operations,” said Russell Ralston, Vice President of EVA, Axiom Space. “We look forward to offering our expertise in the design of vehicle interfaces for both the crew and spacesuits, ensuring astronaut safety and mobility on the surface of the Moon. This partnership showcases a collective commitment to pushing boundaries and driving advancements in space exploration.”
Lunar Outpost Reaction
Lunar Outpost will work with LockheedMartin, General Motors, Goodyear and MDA Space to develop their LTV.
“Surface mobility is a critical capability for humanity’s future in space, and Lunar Outpost looks forward to driving value in the cislunar economy by providing a reliable, safe and capable vehicle that will be used to provide mobility to Artemis astronauts and perform critical missions autonomously on the Moon for commercial endeavors,” said Lunar Outpost CEO, Justin Cyrus. “We look forward to leveraging the strengths of Lockheed Martin, a company with extensive human and advanced space systems experience, and our other industry teammates, GM, Goodyear and MDA Space, to provide an unparalleled technical offering at a commercially viable price point.”
NASA Statement
“We look forward to the development of the Artemis generation lunar exploration vehicle to help us advance what we learn at the Moon,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “This vehicle will greatly increase our astronauts’ ability to explore and conduct science on the lunar surface while also serving as a science platform between crewed missions.”
All Purpose Vehicle
Besides enduring the extreme lunar conditions of the Moon’s South Pole region, the new rover requirements include advanced power management, autonomous driving, communications and navigation systems. When crews are not actively using the rovers on their missions on the lunar surface, NASA also expects to be able to use the rovers remotely to “support NASA’s scientific objectives as needed.” NASA added that “Outside those times, the provider will have the ability to use their LTV for commercial lunar surface activities unrelated to NASA missions.”
“We will use the LTV to travel to locations we might not otherwise be able to reach on foot, increasing our ability to explore and make new scientific discoveries,” said Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist in the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With the Artemis crewed missions, and during remote operations when there is not a crew on the surface, we are enabling science and discovery on the Moon year around.”
And then there were two. After SpaceX launched Starlink 4-14 on April 21, 2022, there were “only” two rockets standing on top of their launch pads on the Space Coast.
Artemis-1 won’t launch this time around, instead, it will return to the VAB sometime around April 26, 2022 for repairs to a faulty valve as well as other processing. While it is gone, repairs and upgrades will be made to the ground support equipment on Launch Complex 39-B, and hopefully when the rocket is rolled back out, its Wet Dress Rehearsal will run more smoothly.
Crew-4 is scheduled to launch in the pre-dawn hours on April 27th, 2022. It will head to the International Space Station and deliver four NASA astronauts there to being a six-month stint onboard.
The sun sets on Artemis1 and the first night of its Wet Dress Rehearsal begins.
All was quiet at that moment, and it was incredible to watch SLS start to glow brighter and brighter as the darkness fell behind her.
The sun sets on Artemis1 and the first night of its Wet Dress Rehearsal begins. All was quiet at that moment, and it was incredible to watch SLS start to glow brighter and brighter as the darkness fell behind her.
The day was a stormy one, starting with a tornado warning around 830-9am in Cocoa Beach, which is not far at all from Kennedy Space Center and Pad LC-39B. I was not terribly worried, however, because tornadoes almost always track northeast and that meant it would be offshore before it go to the launch pad. Fortunately, the warning was much ado about not very much and there was no damage to speak of at the beaches.
In between storms (it rained again that afternoon and that night as well) SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 carrying Transporter 4 at 12:24:17 local time, and later, after an afternoon of steely-grey skies and more rain, the clouds parted a little bit to put some color in the gloaming as the sun set.
Artemis herself seemed to grow brighter and brighter as the sky turned to black. Much brighter and taller than the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse, the rocket shone like a beacon into the night. It’s clearly visible from all over the Titusville-Cocoa area, especially on bridges or on roads that give a view up the rivers.
Saturn V’s were the same, brightly lit and easy to see from nearly everywhere around town. It was not only a working spacecraft, but also a symbol that never failed to catch the eye. And given that a lot of NASA workers and their associated contractors contributing to the project live here, Artemis is now what the brightly lit Apollo vehicles were: a reminder of what the mission was.
A closeup of the top of Artemis on her first night of WDR. (Best viewed enlarged…there are lots of cool little details to look at.)
Here’s a story in the Huntsville (Alabama) Times from 1958 talking about my grandfather and my uncle and their jobs with the space program. V.L. Pinson, my grandfather, was a senior engineer and manager with the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which was later merged into NASA in 1960.
George Pinson, my uncle, joined Boeing shortly after this article was written, and during his time there, he was an engineer, director and senior manager. When he retired, he had over 300 patents, some of which can be found here. One of the main projects he worked on was the Saturn V S-IC first stage, as well as military rocketry systems.
They were both very intelligent men, and literal rocket scientists who taught me a great deal — not the least of which was how to learn and how to go about solving problems.
Ever wondered what the inside of NASA’s Transporter Crawler looks like?
In 2014, I was part of a NASA Social event, and as part of the “insider” tour we got to go inside and look around in the Crawler that was used for Apollo and the Space Shuttle, and is now used for Artemis.
The treads of a NASA Transporter-CrawlerA Transporter-Crawler powering a Saturn VThe huge size of the Transporter-Crawler relative to a personTransporter-Crawler 2 has an odometer, but I could not work out the units.A wider view of a Transporter Crawler with a person beneath itThe Transporter-Crawler has a steering wheel.Some of the computer monitoring of the Transporter Crawler.Part of the engine room. The diesel engines were HUGEThe driver’s seat of a Transporter-CrawlerMore of the computer controls for a Transporter-Crawler
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