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Tag: space

  • NASA to conduct second wet dress rehearsal of Artemis II

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    KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — After detecting a liquid hydrogen leak during its first wet dress rehearsal of the Artemis II moon rocket, NASA will attempt a second test of the launch vehicle that will take humans back to the moon.

    What You Need To Know

    • The U.S. space agency is eyeing Thursday for a second wet dress rehearsal
    • If all goes well, March 6 might be the earliest chance for Artemis II launch
    • The first wet dress rehearsal found leaks; NASA replaced seals
    • RELATED coverage:

    The U.S. space agency is eyeing Thursday for a second wet dress rehearsal, as it will put more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic fuel into the Space Launch System rocket during a test of that and the Orion capsule. It will also simulate a launch countdown, the ability to recycle the countdown clock and drain the tanks to practice for possible scrubs.

    “Launch controllers will arrive to their consoles in the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:40 p.m. EST on Feb. 17 to begin the nearly 50-hour countdown. The simulated launch time is 8:30 p.m., Feb. 19, with a four-hour window for the test. While the Artemis II crew is not participating in the test, a team of personnel will go to the launch pad to practice Orion closeout operations, including closing the spacecraft’s hatches,” NASA explained on Monday.

    NASA provided a bit more detail on the test.

    During the rehearsal, the team will execute a detailed countdown sequence. Operators will conduct two runs of the last ten minutes of the countdown, known as terminal count. They will pause at T-1 minute and 30 seconds for up to three minutes, then resume until T-33 seconds before launch and pause again. After that, they will recycle the clock back to T-10 minutes and conduct a second terminal countdown to just inside of T-30 seconds before ending the sequence. This process simulates real-world conditions, including scenarios where a launch might be scrubbed due to technical or weather issues.

    During the first wet dress rehearsal on Monday, Feb. 02, NASA teams found a liquid hydrogen leak in an interface that is used to route the fuel into the SLS’s core stage, as well as other issues.

    In fact, that was the same section where a liquid hydrogen leak was found during the Artemis I mission.

    While technicians replaced two seals in that area since the Artemis II first pretest, this past weekend, NASA made additional fixes to issues that were discovered during a different test.

    “Over the weekend, teams replaced a filter in ground support equipment that was suspected of reducing the flow of liquid hydrogen during a Feb. 12 partial fueling test. The test provided enough data to allow engineers to plan toward a second wet dress rehearsal this week. Engineers have reconnected the line with the new filter and are reestablishing proper environmental conditions,” NASA stated in a blog post.

    Because the leak and other issues were discovered during the first wet dress rehearsal, NASA had to push the launch of the Artemis II to early March. It was supposed to launch early February.

    Officials stated that if all goes well, NASA will be eyeing March 6 as the earliest chance to launch the historical mission.

    But officials stressed that it all depends on how the second test goes and its findings.

    Once the Artemis II stacked rocket is ready for launch, it will send NASA’s Cmdr. Gregory Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut mission specialist Jeremy Hansen to the moon in a flyby mission.

    Artemis II launch attempt dates

    [ad_2] Anthony Leone
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  • Crew-12 docks with the International Space Station on Valentine’s Day

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    CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — After a 34-hour commute from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the four members of the Crew-12 docked with the International Space Station on Valentine’s Day.

    And they will spend the next eight months conducting various experiments.

    What You Need To Know

    • Crew-12 will be spending the next eight months conducting various experiments

    Early Friday morning, NASA astronauts Cmdr. Jessica Meir and pilot Jack Hathaway, and mission specialists European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev took off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, according to both NASA and SpaceX.

    Taking off from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, they left the little round Earth at 5:15 a.m. ET.

    The quartet’s ride — SpaceX’s Dragon capsule called Freedom — docked with the International Space Station’s space-facing Harmony module at around 3:15 p.m. ET.

    The Dragon docked autonomously, but if needed to, Hathaway could have docked it manually.

    “The Crew-12 mission is the 20th human spaceflight mission that SpaceX has launched. Also, when the Dragon capsule docks with the International Space Station, it will be the 51st time a Dragon spacecraft has docked with ISS or has visited ISS, I should say,” explained Julianna Scheiman, SpaceX’s director of NASA Science and Dragon Programs, during the press conference after Friday’s launch.

    Freedom has participated in four other crewed missions:

    Crew-12 will be welcomed by NASA astronaut Christopher Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev.

    Williams pressurized a small section where Crew-12 docked with the space station and leak checks were being conducted. Once that area was ready, then procedures took place for the Dragon crewmembers to board the station.

    Before Crew-12 boarded the space station, Adenot requested a private medical conference call between the Dragon members and NASA. The U.S. space agency did not reveal the nature of the call.

    They were to be greeted by Crew-11, but the mission was cut short after one of the crew members suffered a medical episode. The medical issue and the name of the person have not been disclosed.

    The Crew-12 will join Expedition 74; an expedition is the current crew onboard the International Space Station.

    During their eight-month stay, the Crew-12 will be conducting a variety of health-related experiments, as well as a study to simulate moon landings.  

     

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    Anthony Leone

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  • What are the rules for euthanizing animals at Central Florida shelters?

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    What are the rules for euthanizing animals at Central Florida shelters?

    Updated: 4:30 PM EST Feb 13, 2026

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    A woman in Osceola County says he dog was euthanized an hour after it got loose and was picked up by animal control. What are the rules for holding an animal before it goes up for adoption or is euthanized?Each county is different. Here’s what they say: Osceola County Animal ServicesHolds stray pets for the legal hold period of three working days, after which time they are evaluated for potential adoptionThere could be medical conditions that are serious enough to make adoption inappropriate or impractical and in these cases, animals may be euthanizedMore from the county’s websitePet Alliance of Orlando Does not euthanize for time or space, only for severe medical or behavior issues.More from Pet AllianceSeminole CountyHolds stray pets not microchipped or wearing identification for five business days before they become property of Seminole County. MoreOrange CountyLake County Brevard County

    A woman in Osceola County says he dog was euthanized an hour after it got loose and was picked up by animal control.

    What are the rules for holding an animal before it goes up for adoption or is euthanized?

    Each county is different. Here’s what they say:

    Osceola County Animal Services

    • Holds stray pets for the legal hold period of three working days, after which time they are evaluated for potential adoption
    • There could be medical conditions that are serious enough to make adoption inappropriate or impractical and in these cases, animals may be euthanized
    • More from the county’s website

    Pet Alliance of Orlando

    Seminole County

    Holds stray pets not microchipped or wearing identification for five business days before they become property of Seminole County.

    More

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  • SpaceX’s Falcon 9 successfully launches and lands after Crew-12 liftoff

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    CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — For the first time ever in Florida, SpaceX was able to land one of its Falcon 9 rockets just minutes after lifting off from an adjacent launch pad.

    It also means that NASA’s four Crew-12 members are on their long commute to the International Space Station.

    What You Need To Know

    • For the first time in Florida, a SpaceX rocket returned near the launch site
    • Learn more about the four astronauts as they will spend eight months on the ISS
    • They will be doing various experiments to learn more about the human body in space as well as moon-landing simulations


    During the early morning hours on Friday, NASA astronauts Cmdr. Jessica Meir and pilot Jack Hathaway, and mission specialists European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev climbed into the Falcon 9 to take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, according to both NASA and SpaceX.

    The instantaneous launch took place at 5:15 a.m. ET.

    The Falcon 9 jumped off the launch pad and screamed into the early morning sky as space fans cheered and then were in awe as a jellyfish was seen.

    The jellyfish effect is when the Falcon 9 rocket’s (or any rocket’s) exhaust plume grows and creates a jellyfish-like “cloud” from the exhaust that has a glowing appearance if the launch is near dawn and dusk.

    After the launch, NASA officials held a press conference, where Spectrum News asked Admin. Jared Isaacman about his thoughts on seeing the first crewed launch as the U.S. space agency’s new administrator.

    The 45th Weather Squadron gave a 90% chance of favorable launch conditions, with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule and flight through precipitation.

    The forecast was higher than the original 85% the squadron gave for Friday’s launch. 

    If the launch was a scrub, the next attempt would have been Sunday, Feb. 15.

    Originally, the launch was set for Wednesday at 6:01 a.m. ET and then it was pushed to 5:38 a.m. ET, Thursday, until finally settled on Friday.

    The reason for this was due to the upper-level winds.

    The commute to the ISS and a historical landing

    This is the first crewed launch of 2026 and SpaceX’s Dragon capsule called Freedom was moving around 17,500 mph (28,164 kph) as it went into the black of space.

    Freedom has had an impressive resume, having been used for four crewed missions.

    For the first-stage Falcon 9 rocket booster B1101, this will be its second mission. Its first mission was last month and it was the first launch of 2026: Starlink 6-88 mission.

    And it will be a long commute to work for them. The astronauts are expected to arrive at the International Space Station at around 3:15 p.m. ET on Valentine’s Day.

    And this was a historical landing for the Sunshine State. Because the Crew-12 mission has four people onboard, the first-stage booster must land at the brand new Landing Zone 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is adjacent to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 40, as seen in this embedded Facebook post.

    A sonic boom cracked across the early morning sky as the Falcon 9 rocket came down for a landing.

    Landing Zone 40 is at the top right of the photo.  

    SpaceX’s lease on Landing Zone 1 and 2, located at Space Launch Complex (SLC) 13 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) ended in July 2025, after the Space Launch Delta (SLD) 45 decided to allow new, incoming Commercial Launch Service Providers (CLPS), to perform launch operations out at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station under their new Launch Pad Allocation Strategy (LPAS).

    Back in May 2023, Space Launch Delta 45 issued a press release, stating that Space Launch Complex (SLC) 15 would go to ABL Space Systems, SLC 14 to Stoke Space, and SLC 13 to Phantom Space and Vaya Space.

    The relocation of landing zone 1 & 2 from SLC 13 to Landing Zone 40 at SLC 40 allows SpaceX the opportunity to process and refurbish the returned flight proven Falcon 9 booster quicker to keep pace with their launch manifest. The move also maximizes the launch capacity along the Eastern Range, but also minimizing the impacts that CLSPs create for other CLSPs or government programs across CCSFS, because instead of the Falcon booster landing 7 miles to the south, it now returns only 1,000 feet away from where it launched from.

    “Commercial Launch Service Providers with landing operations can submit a request to SLD 45 for consideration of landing capability at their complex, which will then go through an extensive evaluation process” said Erin White, Delta planning specialist, stated in a press release in 2023.  “Requests for landing operations will be evaluated for safety implications and their impacts to other programs on CCSFS.”

    So, going forward, crewed SpaceX launches in Florida will see the first-stage rocket returning on a landing pad near the launch site, which does not pose a higher safety risk. 

    However, Landing Zone 2 will still be available for Falcon Heavy launches. Since a Falcon Heavy has three boosters, one would go on a droneship (or be expended), the next one would land on Landing Zone 40 and the third would land on Landing Zone 2, since each landing zone can only handle one booster at a time.

    Understanding the Crew-12 mission

    The quartet is not going to the International Space Station empty-handed and checking out the views of Earth from space.

    They will be busy little beavers as they conduct medical experiments during their eight-month stay.

    “The experiments, led by NASA’s Human Research Program, include astronauts performing ultrasounds of their blood vessels to study altered circulation and completing simulated lunar landings to assess disorientation during gravitational transitions, among other tasks,” NASA stated.

    NASA Public Affairs specialist Steven Siceloff shared about some of the experiments that the Crew-12 will be doing. 

    Another experiment is called Venous Flow, which will look at how time on the floating laboratory may increase the chance of astronauts developing blood clots.

    “In weightlessness, blood and other bodily fluids can move toward the head, potentially altering circulation. Any resulting blood clots could pose serious health risks, including strokes,” the U.S. space agency explained.

    For the experiment, the astronauts will undergo preflight and postflight MRIs, ultrasound scans, blood draws and blood pressure readings so scientists can compare the findings.

    But it is not all medical experiments. During the Manual Piloting study, certain crew members will conduct simulated moon landings before, during and after this mission.

    “Designed to assess their piloting and decision-making skills, participants attempt to fly a virtual spacecraft toward the lunar South Pole region — the same area future Artemis crews plan to explore,” NASA explained.

    Other experiments will be conducted.

    Meet Crew-12

    Crew-12 will not have a traditional welcome

    Usually, a crewed mission will have a welcome party, where the previous mission (in this case, Crew-11), welcomes the new arrivals.

    Pleasantries and workload are exchanged during this transition. 

    However, Crew-11 was cut short after one of its members suffered a medical episode.

    The crewmember has not been named and his or her medical issue was not disclosed.

    The event happened days before a planned spacewalk for NASA astronauts Cmdr. Zena Cardman and pilot Michael Fincke.

    NASA officials decided to cut the mission short and return Cardman, Fincke and mission specialists Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov to Earth.

    It was the first medical evacuation in the space station’s 25 years of full service. Originally, the mission was going to end in February.

    NASA officials stressed that the person was in stable condition and the four Crew-11 members appeared together in a press conference nearly a week after returning to Earth in a splashdown.

    [ad_2] Anthony Leone, Jon Shaban
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  • NASA, SpaceX defy superstitions with successful launch on Friday the 13th

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    TEXAS — For those who are superstitious, Friday the 13th may seem like an unlucky day. But for Texas-based company SpaceX and NASA, it’s quite the opposite. The two organizations’ joint launch went on without a hitch. 

    “I understand it’s the first time NASA has ever launched on Friday the 13th, so, pretty amazing times. Really appreciate all the hard work between NASA and SpaceX and on the Crew-12,” said Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

    Friday morning, four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission successfully launched. Astronauts took off from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida for a science expedition aboard the International Space Station.

    “It was just wonderful to see everything in motion, felt very privileged to be here alongside an extraordinary team preparing for an excellent mission like Crew-12,” said Jared Isaacman, a NASA administrator. 

    The crews up in space will conduct a variety of science experiments aimed at advancing research and technology for missions to the moon and Mars.

    “We are going to get our highest potential science and research up there with the aim of cracking the code and igniting an orbital economy,” said Isaacman.

    Astronauts will aim to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low-Earth orbit.

    “What we may find, what we could learn, which could have meaningful benefit back here on Earth,” said Isaacman.

    Crew-12’s Freedom spacecraft will spend approximately 34 hours traveling to the International Space Station, according to NASA. It’s expected to dock on Valentine’s Day. 

    “Looking forward to docking. Hope our teams get some rest today,” said Stich.

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    Barbara Fox

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  • Crew-12 will see first landing of Falcon 9 at Space Coast launch site

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    CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — As NASA and SpaceX prepare for the Crew-12 mission, it will mark the first time a SpaceX rocket will land near its launch site in Florida.

    What You Need To Know

    • For the first time in Florida, a SpaceX rocket will return near the launch site
    • Learn more about the four astronauts as they will spend eight months on the ISS
    • They will be doing various experiments to learn more about the human body in space as well as moon-landing simulations

    During the early morning hours on Friday, NASA astronauts Cmdr. Jessica Meir and pilot Jack Hathaway, and mission specialists European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will climb into the Falcon 9 to take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, stated both NASA and SpaceX.

    The instantaneous launch is set to take place at 5:15 a.m. ET.

    The 45th Weather Squadron is giving a 90% chance of favorable launch conditions, with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule and flight through precipitation.

    The forecast is an increase compared to the original 85% the squadron gave for Friday’s launch. 

    If the launch is a scrub, the next attempt will be Sunday, Feb. 15.

    Originally, the launch was set for Wednesday at 6:01 a.m. ET and then it was pushed to 5:38 a.m. ET, Thursday, until finally settling on Friday.

    The reason for this was due to the upper-level winds.

    The commute to the ISS and a historical landing

    This is the first crewed launch of 2026 and SpaceX’s Dragon capsule called Freedom is expected to be screaming at about 17,500 mph (28,164 kph) as it goes into the black of space.

    Freedom has had an impressive resume, having been used for four crewed missions.

    For the first-stage Falcon 9 rocket booster B1101, this will be its second mission. Its first mission was last month and it was the first launch of 2026: Starlink 6-88 mission.

    And it will be a long commute to work for them. The astronauts are expected to arrive at the International Space Station at around 3:15 p.m. ET on Valentine’s Day.

    And this is going to be a historical landing for the Sunshine State. Because the Crew-12 mission will have four people onboard, the first-stage booster must land at Landing Zone 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is adjacent to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 40, as seen in this embedded Facebook post. Landing Zone 40 is at the top right of the photo. 

    This will be the first time a Falcon 9 rocket will land near its launch site in Florida. The first-stage boosters usually land on a droneship out in the Atlantic Ocean or at a landing zone on land but away from the launch site.

    However, SpaceX’s lease on Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ended in July 2025.

    Back in May 2023, Space Launch Delta 45 issued a press release, stating, “SLC 13, currently Landing Zone 1 and 2, is also moving forward with Phantom Space and Vaya Space.”

    It means that the existing launch complex property agreements for landing operations were discontinued after the agreements expired.

    So, going forward, crewed SpaceX launches in Florida will see the first-stage rocket returning on a landing pad near the launch site.

    Understanding the Crew-12 mission

    The quartet is not going to the International Space Station empty-handed and checking out the views of Earth from space.

    They will be busy little beavers as they will be conducting medical experiments during their eight-month stay.

    “The experiments, led by NASA’s Human Research Program, include astronauts performing ultrasounds of their blood vessels to study altered circulation and completing simulated lunar landings to assess disorientation during gravitational transitions, among other tasks,” NASA stated.

    Another experiment is called Venous Flow, which will look at how time on the floating laboratory may increase the chance of astronauts developing blood clots.

    “In weightlessness, blood and other bodily fluids can move toward the head, potentially altering circulation. Any resulting blood clots could pose serious health risks, including strokes,” the U.S. space agency explained.

    For the experiment, the astronauts will undergo preflight and postflight MRIs, ultrasound scans, blood draws and blood pressure readings so scientists can compare the findings.

    But it is not all medical experiments. During the Manual Piloting study, certain crew members will be conducting simulated moon landings before, during and after this mission.

    “Designed to assess their piloting and decision-making skills, participants attempt to fly a virtual spacecraft toward the lunar South Pole region — the same area future Artemis crews plan to explore,” NASA explained.

    Other experiments will be conducted.

    Meet Crew-12

    Crew-12 will not have a traditional welcome

    Usually, a crewed mission will have a welcome party, where the previous mission (in this case, Crew-11), welcomes the new arrivals.

    Pleasantries and workload are exchanged during this transition.

    However, Crew-11 was cut short after one of its members suffered a medical episode.

    The crewmember has not been named and his or her medical issue was not disclosed.

    The event happened days before a planned spacewalk for NASA astronauts Cmdr. Zena Cardman and pilot Michael Fincke.

    NASA officials decided to cut the mission short and return Cardman, Fincke and mission specialists Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov to Earth.

    It was the first medical evacuation in the space station’s 25 years of full service. Originally, the mission was going to end in February.

    NASA officials stressed that the person was in stable condition and the four Crew-11 members appeared together in a press conference nearly a week after returning to Earth in a splashdown.

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  • How to see the Crew-12 launch

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    During the early morning hours on Friday, NASA astronauts Cmdr. Jessica Meir and pilot Jack Hathaway, and mission specialists European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will climb into the Falcon 9 to take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

    The instantaneous launch is set to take place at 5:15 a.m. ET.

    The 45th Weather Squadron is giving a 90% chance of favorable launch conditions, with the only concerns being the cumulus cloud rule and flight through precipitation.

    If the launch were to occur as scheduled Friday morning, it would be visibile in the early morning sky across the East Coast, including here in South Carolina.

    The latest high resolution models forecast mostly clear skies. There could be better cloud coverage along the coast compared to inland areas so plan your viewing accordingly.

    Forecast cloud coverage Friday morning. (weathermodels.com)

    If the launch is a scrub, the next attempt will be Sunday, Feb. 15.Hour-by-hour forecast 

    Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.

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    Spectrum News Weather Staff

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  • ULA prepares to launch U.S. Space Force tracking satellites

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    CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — Early Thursday morning, United Launch Alliance (ULA) will be sending up satellites for the U.S. Space Force.

    What You Need To Know

    • ULA’s Vulcan rocket will be sending up USSF-87 mission from Space Launch Complex-41 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

    ULA’s Vulcan rocket will be sending up USSF-87 mission from Space Launch Complex-41 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, stated the company, which is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

    The two-hour launch window opens at 3:30 a.m. ET to 5:30 a.m. ET, which means that ULA has during that time period to launch the mission.

    Unlike SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the Vulcan rocket is not reusable, and it will not land on a droneship or landing pad.

    The Vulcan is the booster, while the Centaur is the second stage.

    The 45th Weather Squadron has given a 95% chance of good liftoff conditions, with the only worries being the cumulus cloud rule.

    About the mission

    Not much is known about the mission, except that the USSF-87 mission will see numerous Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program satellites go to a geosynchronous orbit, so about more than 22,000 miles (35,406 kilometers) above the little round Earth.

    “The USSF-87 mission will carry a variety of payloads that will promote the advancement of space technology to benefit future programs of record. The primary payload is the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) space system, built by Northrop Grumman; a capability supporting the U.S. Space Command space surveillance operations as a high-performance, dedicated Space Surveillance Network sensor. They provide ‘neighborhood watch’ services in the geostationary Earth arena, improving flight safety for all spacefaring nations operating in that orbit,” the U.S. Space Force’s Space System Command explained in a press release.

    Watch the launch

    [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFw6xy2zGCo[/embed]

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  • Poor weather forces NASA to push Crew-12 launch

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    KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — On Monday morning, NASA announced that Crew-12 mission managers made the decision to delay the launch to Thursday, due to unfavorable weather conditions.

    What You Need To Know

    • NASA is now eyeing Thursday for the Crew-12 launch

    • The NASA team is meeting on Tuesday morning for a weather briefing to determine if the Thursday opportunity holds or if it will be pushed to Friday

    • Get more space coverage here  ▶

    Originally, NASA’s commercial crew mission to the International Space Station was going to be on Wednesday at 6:01 a.m. ET.

    However, poor weather forced NASA to change its plans.

    “When we had our briefing this morning, the launch site weather is very favorable for the entire week here at the Kennedy Space Center, but we have abort weather up the east coast where should something happen to the launch vehicle, we can separate dragon and land safely, we could see high winds along that track,” says Steve Stich, NASA Commercial Crew Program manager, on Monday during a press conference.

    NASA pushed the launch ahead one day to 5:38 a.m. ET, Thursday, Feb. 12, as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon are waiting at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 for launch.

    The NASA team is meeting on Tuesday morning for a weather briefing to determine if the Thursday opportunity holds or if it will be pushed to Friday.

    The four-member crew is NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedvaev.

    Meir and Fedvaev have flown to the space station once before.

    “They are returning residents, then we have two new flyers Jack Hathaway and Sophie Adenot. We are looking forward to having them on board as well,” says Dana Weigel, NASA International Space Station Program manager.

    Crew-12 was moved up due to an undisclosed illness of one of the Crew-11 astronauts, who safely returned to Earth back in January.

    “I wanted to thank the whole team for the early Crew-11 return, and this particular launch. Everyone’s done a great job,” Weigel says.

    Because of the medical episode, Crew-11’s mission was cut short. It was originally going to end in February.

    A big part of Crew-12’s mission is scientific investigations and technology demonstrations, prepping humans for future deep space missions to the moon and Mars and beyond.

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    Greg Pallone

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  • Musk vows to put data centers in space and run them on solar, experts doubt

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk vowed this week to upend another industry just as he did with cars and rockets — and once again he’s taking on long odds.

    The world’s richest man said he wants to put as many as a million satellites into orbit to form vast, solar-powered data centers in space — a move to allow expanded use of artificial intelligence and chatbots without triggering blackouts and sending utility bills soaring.

    To finance that effort, Musk combined SpaceX with his AI business on Monday and plans a big initial public offering of the combined company.

    “Space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale,” Musk wrote on SpaceX’s website Monday, adding about his solar ambitions, “It’s always sunny in space!”

    But scientists and industry experts say even Musk — who outsmarted Detroit to turn Tesla into the world’s most valuable automaker — faces formidable technical, financial and environmental obstacles.

    Here’s a look:

    Feeling the heat

    Capturing the sun’s energy from space to run chatbots and other AI tools would ease pressure on power grids and cut demand for sprawling computing warehouses that are consuming farms and forests and vast amounts of water to cool.

    But space presents its own set of problems.

    Data centers generate enormous heat. Space seems to offer a solution because it is cold. But it is also a vacuum, trapping heat inside objects in the same way that a Thermos keeps coffee hot using double walls with no air between them.

    “An uncooled computer chip in space would overheat and melt much faster than one on Earth,” said Josep Jornet, a computer and electrical engineering professor at Northeastern University.

    One fix is to build giant radiator panels that glow in infrared light to push the heat “out into the dark void,” says Jornet, noting that the technology has worked on a small scale, including on the International Space Station. But for Musk’s data centers, he says, it would require an array of “massive, fragile structures that have never been built before.”

    Floating debris

    Then there is space junk.

    A single malfunctioning satellite breaking down or losing orbit could trigger a cascade of collisions, potentially disrupting emergency communications, weather forecasting and other services.

    Musk noted in a recent regulatory filing that he has had only one “low-velocity debris generating event” in seven years running Starlink, his satellite communications network. Starlink has operated about 10,000 satellites — but that’s a fraction of the million or so he now plans to put in space.

    “We could reach a tipping point where the chance of collision is going to be too great,” said University at Buffalo’s John Crassidis, a former NASA engineer. “And these objects are going fast — 17,500 miles per hour. There could be very violent collisions.”

    No repair crews

    Even without collisions, satellites fail, chips degrade, parts break.

    Special GPU graphics chips used by AI companies, for instance, can become damaged and need to be replaced.

    “On Earth, what you would do is send someone down to the data center,” said Baiju Bhatt, CEO of Aetherflux, a space-based solar energy company. “You replace the server, you replace the GPU, you’d do some surgery on that thing and you’d slide it back in.”

    But no such repair crew exists in orbit, and those GPUs in space could get damaged due to their exposure to high-energy particles from the sun.

    Bhatt says one workaround is to overprovision the satellite with extra chips to replace the ones that fail. But that’s an expensive proposition given they are likely to cost tens of thousands of dollars each, and current Starlink satellites only have a lifespan of about five years.

    Competition — and leverage

    Musk is not alone trying to solve these problems.

    A company in Redmond, Washington, called Starcloud, launched a satellite in November carrying a single Nvidia-made AI computer chip to test out how it would fare in space. Google is exploring orbital data centers in a venture it calls Project Suncatcher. And Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin announced plans in January for a constellation of more than 5,000 satellites to start launching late next year, though its focus has been more on communications than AI.

    Still, Musk has an edge: He’s got rockets.

    Starcloud had to use one of his Falcon rockets to put its chip in space last year. Aetherflux plans to send a set of chips it calls a Galactic Brain to space on a SpaceX rocket later this year. And Google may also need to turn to Musk to get its first two planned prototype satellites off the ground by early next year.

    Pierre Lionnet, a research director at the trade association Eurospace, says Musk routinely charges rivals far more than he charges himself —- as much as $20,000 per kilo of payload versus $2,000 internally.

    He said Musk’s announcements this week signal that he plans to use that advantage to win this new space race.

    “When he says we are going to put these data centers in space, it’s a way of telling the others we will keep these low launch costs for myself,” said Lionnet. “It’s a kind of powerplay.”

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  • What led NASA to delay Artemis II launch

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    NASA’s first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years has been delayed until March at the earliest. During a routine dress rehearsal of the launch, persistent liquid hydrogen leaks were discovered in the Artemis II rocket. CBS News space consultant Bill Harwood breaks it down.

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  • Falcon 9 issue may push back Crew-12 launch

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    CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — An issue with a Falcon 9 rocket during a launch in California may push back the Crew-12 mission.

    What You Need To Know

    • An issue with the Falcon 9 rocket during re-entry has forced SpaceX to hold off on launches until the cause has been resolved

    During SpaceX’s Starlink 17-32 mission on Monday morning, an issue came up with the company’s Falcon 9 rocket after it took off from Space Launch Complex 4 East from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

    “During today’s launch, the second stage experienced an off-nominal condition during preparation for the deorbit burn. The vehicle then performed as designed to successfully passivate the stage,” SpaceX stated.

    The rocket was able to send up the 25 Starlink communication satellites to low-Earth orbit, the Texas-based company stated.

    However, the issue has forced SpaceX to hold off on future launches.

    “Teams are reviewing data to determine root cause and corrective actions before returning to flight,” SpaceX stated.

    NASA has not yet stated how this will impact its Crew-12 flight to the International Space Station, as the U.S. space agency has contracted SpaceX to send astronauts to and from the space station.

    “The next mission to the orbital outpost, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12, is targeted to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, no earlier than Feb. 11,” NASA stated in a blog post on Monday.

    The mission will see NASA’s Cmdr. Jessica Meir, pilot Jack Hathaway, and mission specialists Sophie Adenot of European Space Agency and Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos spending months on the floating laboratory.

    The Crew-11 mission was cut short due to a medical issue.

    Spectrum News reached out to both NASA and SpaceX for comment, with only NASA stating it will send out a statement later Tuesday.

    The FAA has not issued a statement about the Falcon 9 issue.

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    Anthony Leone

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  • Artemis II moon rocket fueling test scrubbed due to hydrogen leaks

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    After working around a hydrogen leak, NASA pressed ahead with a “wet dress” rehearsal countdown of its Artemis II moon rocket Monday, loading the huge rocket with more than 750,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel, only to be derailed by additional leakage early Tuesday.

    Already running several hours behind schedule, the countdown resumed at the T-minus 10-minute mark around 12:09 a.m. EST Tuesday, ticking down toward a simulated engine start.

    But four-and-a-half minutes later, the countdown stopped again due to a “liquid hydrogen leak at the interface of the tail service mast umbilical, which had experienced high concentrations of liquid hydrogen earlier in the countdown,” NASA said on social media.

    The Space Launch System rocket’s mobile launch platform is equipped with two tail service masts, large side-by-side structures at the base of rocket that house propellant lines leading to pull-away umbilical assemblies on a side of the booster’s engine compartment.

    “The launch control team is working to ensure the SLS rocket is in a safe configuration and (to) begin draining its tanks,” NASA said.

    Whether mission managers will be able to clear the rocket for launch as early as Sunday to propel four astronauts on a flight to the moon will depend on the results of a detailed overnight review and post-test analysis. But NASA only has three days — Feb. 8, 10 and 11 — to get the mission off this month or the flight will slip to March.

    Hydrogen leaks have proven extremely difficult to repair at the launch pad, and a Super Bowl Sunday launch appears unlikely unless managers conclude the leak is manageable as is. But no final decisions on a path forward are expected until engineers have a chance to review the data. A news briefing is expected at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

    The practice countdown began Saturday evening — two days late because of frigid weather along Florida’s Space Coast and, after a meeting Monday morning to assess the weather and the team’s readiness to proceed, Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson cleared engineers to begin the remotely-controlled fueling operation.

    The test got underway about 45 minutes later than planned but initially appeared to be proceeding smoothly as supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel were pumped into the Space Launch System rocket’s first stage tanks. Shortly after, hydrogen began flowing into the rocket’s upper stage as planned.

    But after the first stage hydrogen tank was about 55 percent full, a leak was detected at an umbilical plate where a fuel line from the launch pad is connected to the base of the SLS rocket’s first stage. After a brief pause, engineers resumed fuel flow but again cut it off with the tank about 77 percent full.

    After more discussion, they decided to press ahead on the assumption the leak would decrease once the tank was full and in a replenishment mode when flow rates were reduced. And that turned out to be the case.

    “NASA teams have completed filling the core stage of the SLS rocket with liquid hydrogen,” NASA said in a brief web update at 4:45 p.m. “Engineers continue to watch the leak at the interface of the tail service mast umbilical, but the liquid hydrogen concentration in the umbilical remains within acceptable limits.”

    The countdown was timed for a simulated launch at 9 p.m. EST, but the test ran longer than originally planned. As of 9:55 p.m., the countdown was in an extended hold at the T-minus 10-minute mark. The count finally resumed just after midnight, only to be stopped a final time at T-minus five minutes and 15 seconds.

    NASA’s Space Launch System rocket stands atop pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center on night of Feb. 2, 2026.

    NASA


    The SLS is the rocket NASA plans to use to send Artemis astronauts to the moon aboard Orion crew capsules. It is the most powerful operational launcher in the world, a towering 332-foot-tall rocket powered by two strap-on solid fuel boosters and four main engines burning liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel that generate 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

    Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are hoping to launch atop the SLS rocket as early as Sunday night for a nine-day two-hour flight around the moon and back. They planned to fly to Florida Tuesday to begin final preparations, but that will depend on the results of the countdown review.

    The SLS rocket’s first and so far only mission came in 2022, when it was launched on an unpiloted test flight. In the campaign leading up to launch, engineers ran into a variety of problems ranging from fuel leaks to unexpected propellant flow behavior in the launch pad’s plumbing. Launch was delayed for months while engineers worked to resolve the problems.

    For the rocket’s second launch, multiple upgrades and improvements were implemented and Blackwell-Thompson said she was optimistic the fueling test would go well.

    “Why do we think that we’ll be successful? It’s the lessons that we learned,” she said last week.

    “Artemis I was the test flight, and we learned a lot during that campaign, getting to launch,” she said. “And the things that we learned relative to how to go load this vehicle, how to load LOX (liquid oxygen), how to load hydrogen, have all been rolled in to the way in which we intend to load the Artemis II vehicle.”

    Most of the fixes and upgrades appeared to work as planned. But leakage at the tail service mast umbilical, a problem during the first Artemis flight in 2022, cropped up again the second time around.

    In:

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  • NASA to review Artemis II test data as it eyes March launch

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    KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — During a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, NASA officials said that due to a liquid hydrogen leak and other issues, they will be postponing the crewed Artemis II launch to the moon to no earlier than March.

    What You Need To Know

    • The liquid hydrogen leak and the bitter cold weather impacted many aspects of the test, NASA stated
    • The wet dress rehearsal is a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket; catch any issues and problems before launch

    NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya called the prelaunch test — called the wet dress rehearsal — a “critical milestone.”

    “The wet dress rehearsal we had last night was a critical milestone on the way to Artemis II. That was the reason we went to the pad was to do this test. It allowed our teams to test all the systems required in the in the all up configuration. I think it’s clear based on what we saw in real time, we’re now targeting no earlier than March for Artemis II launch,” he said on Tuesday afternoon.

    NASA officials said they will go over all the data and determine how the leaks and issues happened, how to fix them and then determine when the next wet dress rehearsal will be.

    During the 49-hour wet dress rehearsal of the Artemis II’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion capsule that started at 8:13 p.m. ET, Jan. 31, NASA encountered a number of issues.

    As NASA was pumping more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic fuel into the rocket on Monday, engineers discovered a liquid hydrogen leak in an interface that is used to route the fuel into the SLS’s core stage.

    A full Moon shines over NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft, as it sits atop the mobile launcher in the early hours of Feb. 1, 2026. (NASA/Sam Lott)

    This caused the engineers to spend hours troubleshooting the problem, with one solution being to stop the flow of liquid hydrogen and allow the interface to warm up so the seals could reset, then re-adjust the flow of the propellant, NASA explained.

    “Teams have stopped the flow of liquid hydrogen through the tail service mast umbilical interface into the core stage after leak concentrations exceeded allowable limits,” the U.S. space agency stated.

    That section — interface of the tail service mast umbilical — was the same section where a leak was found during the Artemis I mission.

    During the press conference, Artemis II Mission Management Team Chairman John Honeycutt said the team of engineers took a pretty aggressive approach to do testing on the valves and seals and how much they can tolerate, calling the interface where the leak was found “complex.”

    “And when you’re dealing with high hydrogen, it’s a small molecule. It’s highly energetic. And we like it for that reason. And we do the best we can. And actually, this one (the leak) caught us off guard. And the initial things that we were seeing and the technical team felt like we either had some sort of misalignment or, or some sort of deformation or, or debris on the seal,” he said.

    Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis II launch director, said that some of the lessons learned during Artemis I were used for this upcoming mission, with some positive results.

    “We did make some changes, … but we did make some changes to several of the hydrogen components. I talked about the replenish valve. We had a leak there. We did a design mod. It worked great. We also made some changes. If you remember, from Artemis I, we also had changes in what I would call the back of the plate in the purge can and in the debris plate, we changed the flex hose design that comes into the back of that plate,” she explained.

    She said that due to the modifications, the teams did not see any liquid hydrogen leaks where improvements have been made.

    With the leaks postponing launches, Spectrum News asked if NASA would consider replacing the SLS rocket and Orion capsule with Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lunar lander for the Artemis III mission, slated for 2027.

    “So we are, of course, heavily partnered with Blue Origin and SpaceX and other, you know, super heavy lift launch vehicle providers that are integral to our architecture. So, we’re going to continue to partner with them and share learnings and implement and get them into our to our mission plans. So that’s certainly true. Changing commodity on SLS or changing the design that in that severe way is will probably disable the production significantly. And, you know, make a change. You expect the change. As discussed earlier, it’s hard enough for us to get into a flight-like configuration in a lot of these tests. And so now putting a big design square wave into it, I’m not sure would have the value that we’d expect. What we really want to do is let industry innovate on their own machines. And then when they’re ready to support our missions, we’ll cut them into the architecture and use them as we need to,” Kshatriya answered.

    In October 2025, then NASA acting Administrator Sean Duffy said NASA is considering Blue Origin and other companies to handle the task of returning humans to the moon’s surface because SpaceX’s Starship was behind schedule.

    Engineers were able to fill all the tanks, both in the core stage and the interim cryogenic propulsion stage.

    The wet dress rehearsal allowed NASA to load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants into the rocket, conduct a simulated launch countdown, and practice removing propellant from the uncrewed rocket.

    However, NASA reported another issue during the simulated countdown.

    “Engineers conducted a first run at terminal countdown operations during the test, counting down to approximately 5 minutes left in the countdown, before the ground launch sequencer automatically stopped the countdown due to a spike in the liquid hydrogen leak rate,” the agency stated.

    The leak was not the only cause of concern. On the Orion capsule — which will take NASA’s Cmdr. Gregory Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialists Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen to a flyby mission to the moon — a valve associated with the spacecraft’s hatch pressurization needed retorquing, which took longer than planned.

    The valve had been replaced before the wet dress rehearsal started.

    NASA also stated that the bitterly cold weather that has swept through Florida recently had a hand in plaguing the test. Several cameras and other equipment were impacted by the cold, as well as audio communications dropping out for the ground teams.

    All of these issues have forced NASA to look at March for the historic launch.

    “With March as the potential launch window, teams will fully review data from the test, mitigate each issue, and return to testing ahead of setting an official target launch date,” NASA stated.

    The crew has been released from quarantine, where they have been since Jan. 21 in Houston.

    Delays are not uncommon for the Artemis mission, with the first one seeing several of them — liquid hydrogen leaks being one of the main causes.

    In fact, Artemis II was supposed to launch in 2025.

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  • NASA says it detected leak on Artemis II moon rocket during testing

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    KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — On Monday afternoon, NASA stated that its teams detected a leak on its Artemis II moon rocket during the wet dress rehearsal.

    In an update, NASA stated that its teams have been able to fill the Space Launch System rocket’s core stage.

    What You Need To Know

    • The leak exceeded allowable limits, NASA stated
    • The wet dress rehearsal of the Orion capsule and the SLS rocket has teams loading more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic fuel into the rocket, conducting a launch countdown and practicing safely removing the fuel from the rocket

    “Teams have stopped the flow of liquid hydrogen through the tail service mast umbilical interface into the core stage after leak concentrations exceeded allowable limits,” the U.S. space agency stated.

    NASA stated that by stopping the flow of fuel, it lets engineers conduct troubleshooting processes that were first developed during Artemis I in 2022.

    During three separate occurrences, NASA detected liquid hydrogen leaks on the Space Launch System rocket during the Artemis I mission.

    “Liquid oxygen continues to flow into the core stage, and liquid hydrogen continues to flow into the upper stage,” NASA stated about the Artemis II wet dress rehearsal.

    In a new update, NASA stated that fixing the leak has “proved unsuccessful”.

    “After teams temporarily resumed fast fill of liquid hydrogen operations into the core stage, initial steps to correct the leak proved unsuccessful. The leak rate at the interface of the tail service mast umbilical continues to exceed the allowable limits. Liquid hydrogen filling operations on both the core stage and upper stage are paused as the team meets to determines next steps,” NASA explained.

    It was stated during the live feed that at 3:48 p.m. ET that the core stage liquid hydrogen fast fill has resumed.

    In a 4:41 p.m. ET update, NASA stated, “NASA teams have completed filling the core stage of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with liquid hydrogen and transitioned to topping mode. … Engineers continue to watch the leak at the interface of the tail service mast umbilical, but the liquid hydrogen concentration in the umbilical remains within acceptable limits.”

    During one of the launch attempts of Artemis I, that there was a leak at that same section. 

    In another update early in the evening, the U.S. space agency confirmed that the rocket has been filled with fuel, but the teams are keeping an eye on the leak.

    “Engineers continue to monitor liquid hydrogen concentration levels in the tail service mast umbilical, where a leak was previously detected. Levels are currently stable,” NASA stated.

    The wet dress rehearsal of the Orion capsule and the SLS rocket has teams loading more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic fuel into the rocket, conducting a launch countdown and practicing safely removing the fuel from the rocket.

    Once the Artemis II stacked rocket is ready for launch, it will send NASA’s Cmdr. Gregory Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut mission specialist Jeremy Hansen to the moon in a flyby mission.

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    Anthony Leone

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  • Looking back at the Artemis I mission

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    KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — As all eyes are on the crewed Artemis II that will see the return of humans to the moon, it pays to look back at the challenges Artemis I had to overcome, such as liquid hydrogen leaks and two hurricanes.

    What You Need To Know

    • In 2022, NASA attempted to launch the uncrewed Artemis I mission many times, with either mechanical problems or Mother Nature getting in the way
    • Don Platt, director of Florida Tech’s Spaceport Education Center, explains what happened to the heat shield during the Orion’s re-entry
    • NASA explained that first Artemis I was a test of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule

    The crewed Artemis II will have NASA’s Cmdr. Gregory Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialists Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen go to the moon for a flyby mission.

    But back in 2022, NASA attempted to launch the uncrewed Artemis I mission from Launch Pad 39B many times, with either mechanical problems or Mother Nature getting in the way.

    See the previous attempts right below.

    From the moment Artemis I launched the Space Launch System rocket and how Orion orbited the moon and returned in a splashdown, all looked OK. Except NASA engineers noticed that something was not right with the capsule’s heat shield.

    When Artemis I was re-entering Earth’s atmosphere at 25,000 mph (40,234 kph), a material called Avcoat that was on the heat shield did not work as designed.

    The Avcoat material is designed to protect a spacecraft from extreme temperatures by burning away as it heats up, instead of sending that heat to the capsule itself.

    And the temperatures the Orion experienced during re-entry was 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).

    Instead of burning away during re-entry, the Avcoat broke up into chunks.

    Don Platt, director of Florida Tech’s Spaceport Education Center, explained what NASA saw.

    “Now what they saw with the Artemis I mission was that the erosion rate or how much of the material disappeared, as that got heated up and and went through the upper reaches of the atmosphere, was up more than they thought it would be. And, so of course, the problem with that is that, well, is there enough margin and why is it heating up more than we anticipated that it would? So that, of course, they had to go back to the drawing board then …,” he explained to Spectrum News.

    [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P5GNMXtHyU[/embed]

    NASA stated it has resolved the problem, but the issue with the heat shield was the reason why the Artemis II and III missions were pushed.

    Artemis II was supposed to be launched in 2025, and Artemis III was going to take off in 2025, but it was pushed back to 2026, with the current launch date being mid-2027.

    Platt said NASA used that time to improve on the heat shield.

    “NASA has spent time doing additional testing, beefing up the heat shield a little bit in places where it might need it. And, of course, they’ve had a couple of years to go through all of that and, make sure they are indeed ready to go now,” he said.

    Spectrum News reached out to NASA for comment and has not yet heard back.

    However, during a 2024 press conference, engineers and experts were able to re-create the conditions that the heat shield experienced during re-entry and developed a new method to be applied to the heat shield, said Amit Kshatriya, the deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars Program Office within the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.

    Officials highlighted that had there been a crew inside the Orion during Artemis I, they would have been safe and comfortable during re-entry, even with the heat shield issue.

    NASA had previously stated that the purpose of the Artemis I was to iron out any issues that came up and that they were generally very pleased with how the mission went.

    And even though those issues have been ironed out, NASA is currently conducting a wet dress rehearsal on the Artemis II before sending up the four astronauts who will be the first humans to go back to the moon in more than 50 years.

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  • Astronauts poised for moon trip aboard Artemis II

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    There has not been a human presence on or near the Moon since the astronauts from 1972’s Apollo 17 mission walked on the surface of Earth’s satellite.

    Now, 50+ years later, the Artemis Project is working toward a long-term goal to first establish a permanent base on the Moon, and then use the Moon as a feasible way to facilitate human missions to Mars.

    The Artemis II flight will send four astronauts on a planned ten-day mission to fly to, circle, and return from the Moon.  We speak to experts to talk about the significance of the mission, Florida’s role in it, and how all of mankind stands to benefit.  

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  • The Far Side Of The Moon | Sunday on 60 Minutes

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    This month, NASA aims to launch four astronauts around the far side of the moon. The Artemis II mission will be NASA’s first human mission to the moon in over 50 years. Bill Whitaker reports, Sunday.

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  • ‘Rare arctic outbreak’ causes NASA to delay Artemis II fueling test

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    KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — The “rare arctic” chill that has been sweeping Florida has caused NASA to push back its wet dress rehearsal of the Artemis II moon rocket, the U.S. space agency stated on Friday morning.

    What You Need To Know

    • It means the new date for the wet dress rehearsal will be early next week
    • The new earliest launch date is now Sunday, Feb. 8, but that is tentative

    “Over the past several days, engineers have been closely monitoring conditions as cold weather and winds move through Florida. Managers have assessed hardware capabilities against the projected forecast given the rare arctic outbreak affecting the state and decided to change the timeline. Teams and preparations at the launch pad remain ready for the wet dress rehearsal,” NASA stated.

    This means that the original wet dress rehearsal has been changed from Saturday, Jan. 31, to Monday, Feb. 2.

    This also means that the earliest launch date to send four humans to the moon will not be Friday, Feb. 6, but now no earlier than Sunday, Feb. 8.

    Scroll down to see the launch attempt dates for Artemis II.

    However, the new launch date is tentative and based on how the wet dress rehearsal turns out. The rehearsal is to test the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion capsule.

    The U.S. space agency explained what the testing of the Artemis II rocket will be like.

    “The upcoming wet dress rehearsal is a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket. During the rehearsal, teams demonstrate the ability to load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants into the rocket, conduct a launch countdown, and practice safely removing propellant from the rocket without astronauts inside the spacecraft,” stated NASA.

    Once the test is complete and if all goes well (include Mother Nature playing nice), then the Artemis II will see four people — NASA’s Cmdr. Gregory Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — go to the moon for a flyby mission.

    The quartet has been in quarantine in Houston since Friday, Jan. 23, 2026.

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  • SpaceX hits milestone after launching more than 11,000 Starlink satellites

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    CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — It was a chilly morning for anyone who stayed up late to watch SpaceX launch nearly 30 Starlink satellites launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station very early Friday morning.

    With Friday morning’s launch of the Starlink 6-101 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, more than 11,000 Starlink satellites are now in orbit around the Earth

    What You Need To Know

    • More than 11,000 Starlink satellites have been launched since 2019

    Going up

    This is only the fifth mission for the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster and all four of its missions have been Starlink launches.

    After the stage separation, the first-stage rocket will land on the droneship Just Read the Instructions that will be in the Atlantic Ocean.

    About the mission

    The 29 satellites from the Starlink company, owned by SpaceX, will be heading to low-Earth orbit to join the thousands already there.

    Once deployed and in their orbit, they will provide internet service to many parts of Earth.

    And we do mean thousands. Dr. Jonathan McDowell, of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has been recording Starlink satellites and their launches.

    And according to his records, there have been 11,034 Starlink satellites that have been launched since the very first batch in 2019.

    But not all of them are fully operational. Or at all. Some are no longer in working order because of age, technical mishaps, or being directed to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

    Before this launch, McDowell recorded the following:

    • 9,573 are in orbit
    • 8,297 are in operational orbit

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    Anthony Leone

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