Nasa aims to send astronauts to the moon in March after successful test

South China Morning Post · Feb 20, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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Nasa aims to send astronauts to the moon in March after acing the latest rocket fuelling test.Administrator Jared Isaacman said on Friday that launch teams made “major progress” between the first countdown rehearsal, which was disrupted by hydrogen leaks earlier this month, and the second test, which was completed without significant seepage on Thursday night.The test was “a big step toward America’s return to the lunar environment”, Isaacman said on social media.Nasa could launch four astronauts on the Artemis II lunar fly-around as soon as March 6 from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre.To keep their options open, the three Americans and one Canadian plan to go into the mandatory two-week health quarantine on Friday night.One of the massive RS-25 engines for Nasa’s Artemis II Space Launch System rocket is displayed near the countdown clock at Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday. Photo: AFPThe space agency has only five days in March to launch the crew aboard the Space Launch System rocket before standing down until April.