Following wet dress, NASA leaders look to send the Artemis II crew back to the Kennedy Space Center

The four crew members have been quarantined in Houston since Jan. 21st, and if teams need more time to work on Artemis II hardware, the crew can remain in Houston, or exit quarantine.

NASA Artemis Moonshot A full moon is seen shining over NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launcher in the early hours of Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Sam Lott/NASA via AP) (Sam Lott/AP)

By Jeremy Goldman

MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. — After wet dress, the crew members are sent to the Kennedy Space Center. They’re expected to fly NASA’s T-38s to Florida, and arrive at K.S.C. around 3 p.m. on Feb. 3rd.

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The Artemis crew will participate in a media gaggle immediately following landing, and their gaggle also will stream live on NASA’s YouTube channel.

Participants will include all four Artemis II crew members:

    • Reid Wiseman - commander, & NASA astronaut.
    • Victor Glover - pilot, & NASA astronaut.
    • Christina Koch - mission specialist, & NASA astronaut.
    • Jeremy Hansen - mission specialist, & CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut.

The agency’s SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft arrived at Launch Pad 39B, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 17. Since then, engineers have been conducting a variety of tests prior to launch.

READ: Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal: Core Stage Slow Fill Begins.

Slow fill is a deliberate process that allows the tanks and associated hardware to thermally condition before transitioning to fast fill.

This step minimizes thermal stress and ensures the integrity of the system as hundreds of thousands of gallons of cryogenic propellant flow into the core stage.

READ: Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal: Core Stage LH2, LOX Chilldown Underway.

Following a successful chilldown of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen lines, teams started slowly filling the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s core stage with super-cold liquid hydrogen, chilled to minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit, then with liquid oxygen chilled to minus 297 degrees.

The chilldown process helps ensure the hardware is conditioned for the extreme temperatures of cryogenic propellants, reducing thermal shock, and safeguarding system integrity.

READ: Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal: ‘Go’ for Tanking.

Teams will begin slowly filling cryogenic propellant into the rocket beginning at L-9 hours 25 minutes in the countdown. Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen will flow into the rocket’s core stage and interim cryogenic propulsion stage tanks, topped off and replenished as some cryogenic propellant boils off.

The team will conduct leak checks to ensure loading proceeds as expected. While teams will continue to monitor cold weather that would impact launch day, they are not tracking weather constraints to Monday’s tanking operations.

This also marks the official start of the propellant loading process for the Artemis II wet dress rehearsal.

A 24/7 live stream of the rocket at the pad remains online, as well as, a separate feed to capture wet dress activities.

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