NASA announced that the original weekend timeline for the wet dress rehearsal is no longer viable due to weather conditions at Kennedy Space Center. The dress rehearsal is a crucial test that involves fully fueling the rocket and running through launch countdown procedures without actually launching.

The Artemis II mission will carry four astronauts on a flyby of the Moon, the first time humans have traveled beyond low Earth orbit in more than 50 years. The crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

The delay continues a pattern of schedule slips for the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface and eventually establish a permanent presence on the Moon. Artemis I, an uncrewed test flight, successfully orbited the Moon in late 2022.