NASA announced that the Artemis II rocket and capsule will be returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

The space agency made the announcement on Monday, February 23, after engineers encountered problems with the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage.

Weather permitting, NASA could return the Artemis II rocket assembly to the vehicle assembly building as early as Tuesday, February 24.

Is the mission to the moon a setback?

NASA’s Artemis II mission is the first crewed flight of the Artemis program.

The mission will take astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen farther into space than any human before them, on a 10-day journey around the moon and back.

On January 18, 2026, NASA space launch system – the rocket – and the Orion capsule where the astronauts stay during the flight.

The four-mile journey from the vehicle assembly building to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center took about 12 hours.

The rollout is complete and the first wet dress rehearsal concluded on February 2, 2026, with engineers reporting problems with the supply of hydrogen fuel to the rocket.

There was also a problem with the Orion crew module’s hatch.

A second wet dress rehearsal was completed on February 19, and hydrogen fuel and crew module issues appeared to be resolved.

After a second water dress rehearsal, NASA announced that Artemis II would be ready for launch in early March.

The astronauts then entered a second quarantine on February 20 in preparation for launch.

But over the weekend, NASA announced that engineers had discovered an interruption in the flow of helium to the space launch system.

Helium is required for proper engine and fuel operation.

NASA says potential causes could be related to the lines used to supply helium to the rocket, a malfunctioning valve at the top of the rocket, or a filter between the ground and the rocket.

The unmanned Artemis 1 mission, launched in November 2022, also encountered problems with the helium supply, and NASA said its engineers are reviewing data from that mission to see if they can provide any answers.

NASA announced that, depending on weather, the rocket and Orion module will be removed from the launch pad and returned to the vehicle assembly building as early as February 24.

“We will need to return to the vehicle assembly building at Kennedy to determine the cause of the problem and fix it,” NASA said in a statement.

“The team is working out the exact time to begin the approximately four-mile, several-hour trek.”