The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with Orion was placed on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, located at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on March 20. The team includes Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover. Glover will be the first African American, and Koch will be the first female astronaut, to participate in a lunar mission.
The launch of Orion was initially planned for March 2026; however, on February 21, NASA's press office announced its postponement indefinitely. Engineers identified issues with the helium supply to the SLS rocket, which is necessary for placing the spacecraft into low Earth orbit.
This mission will be the second phase of the new U.S. lunar program. The first phase of the Artemis program concluded in December 2022, and the third phase aims to land humans on the Moon for the first time in over half a century. The main goal of NASA's program is to establish a staging base for future missions to Mars.
