Managers with NASA and SpaceX, along with international partners, participate in NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Flight Readiness Review at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. Launch is targeted for 2:05 p.m. EDT Sept. 26, 2024, from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will launch to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s ninth crew rotation mission for NASA as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

Steve Volz, assistant administrator, NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service, participates in a prelaunch news conference on Monday, June 24, 2024, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to discuss National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U) mission. The GOES-U satellite is the final addition to GOES-R series, which serves a critical role in providing continuous coverage of the Western Hemisphere, including monitoring tropical systems in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The two-hour launch window opens at 5:16 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 25, for the satellite’s launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Clouds and the Sun illuminate the sky on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, as NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft stand vertical at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Artemis II test flight will take Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), around the Moon and back to Earth no later than April 2026.

Team members working inside the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Sept. 23, 2021, meticulously assemble ground support equipment that will protect shipment of the Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo) flight hardware for preparations before it launches in 2022. MSolo is a commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer modified to work in space and it will help analyze the chemical makeup of landing sites on the Moon, as well as study water on the lunar surface. MSolo, scheduled to first launch in 2022, is part of four of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Delivery Service missions where under the Artemis program, commercial deliveries will include science experiments, testing of technologies and demonstrations of capabilities to help NASA explore the Moon and prepare for human missions.

Dr. Denton Gibson, launch director, NASA’s Launch Services Program, participates in a prelaunch news conference on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for NASA's IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) mission. NASA’s IMAP will use 10 science instruments to study and map the heliosphere, a vast magnetic bubble surrounding the Sun protecting our solar system from radiation incoming from interstellar space. This mission and its two rideshares – NASA’s exosphere-studying Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory – will orbit the Sun near Lagrange point 1, about one million miles from Earth. Launch is targeting 7:32 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Sept. 23, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.

Managers from NASA and industry partners for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket upper stage hand off the baton to managers from the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) are shown with the SLS interim cryogenic propulsion stage inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, March 10, 2025, after being transported from United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Delta Operations Center at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. From left to right are Jim Bonato, ICPS Mission Manager, ULA; Ron Fortson, Director and General Manager, ULA; Chris Calfee, Spacecraft/Payload Integration and Evolution element manager, SLS; Cliff Lanham, senior vehicle operations manager, EGS; Todd Lamond, Strategic Planning and Integration, Amentum; and Natasha Wiest, Interim Director, Boeing Core Stage Integrated Product Team; The interim cryogenic propulsion stage is a liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen-based system that will fire its RL10 engine to give the Orion spacecraft the big in-space push needed to fly around the Moon and back.

Technicians with NASA and Lockheed Martin operate a 30-ton crane to move NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell inside the Neil A. Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. The move prepares for the upcoming installation of four solar array wings and spacecraft adapter jettison fairings for the agency’s first crewed flight test under the Artemis campaign. 

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 crew members prepare to enter the convoy carrying that will take them from the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to nearby Launch Complex 39A ahead of launch on Friday, March 14, 2025. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are scheduled to lift off aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket at 7:03 p.m. EDT. Crew-10 is the 10th crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

During sunrise on Oct. 30, 2020, the mobile launcher for the Artemis I mission, atop crawler-transporter 2, departs Launch Pad 39B and moves slowly along the crawlerway to return to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The nearly 400-foot-tall mobile launcher was at the pad for 10 days, while engineers with Exploration Ground Systems and Jacobs performed several tasks, including a timing test to validate the launch team’s countdown timeline, and a thorough, top-to-bottom wash down of the mobile launcher to remove any debris remaining from construction and installation of the umbilical arms. Artemis I will test the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024.

From right to left, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, along with and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov wave to family and friends as they walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during the second launch attempt of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. Crew-11 is scheduled to lift off aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket at 11:43 a.m. EDT, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 crew members pose for a photo after walking out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of launch of the Crew-10 mission on Friday, March 14, 2025. From left to right, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi are scheduled to lift off aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket at 7:03 p.m. EDT, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy. Crew-10 is the 10th crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi waves from the convoy carrying NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 from the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to nearby Launch Complex 39A ahead of launch on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are scheduled to lift off aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket at 7:48 p.m. EDT. Crew-10 is the 10th crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 crew members wave to family and friends as they prepare to depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for nearby Launch Complex 39A for launch of Crew-10 on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are scheduled to lift off aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket at 7:48 p.m. EDT. Crew-10 is the 10th crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

NASA’s crawler-transporter 2, carrying NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft secured to mobile launcher 1, rolls back Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to troubleshoot the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. Once complete, the SLS rocket will roll back to Launch Complex 39B to prepare to launch four astronauts around the Moon and back for the Artemis II test flight.

Managers with NASA and SpaceX, along with international partners, participate in NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Flight Readiness Review at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. Launch is targeted for 2:05 p.m. EDT Sept. 26, 2024, from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will launch to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s ninth crew rotation mission for NASA as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

Retired NASA astronaut Eileen Collins speaks during NASA’s Day of Remembrance ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, inside the Center for Space Education at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The annual event honors the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, as well as other astronauts who lost their lives in the pursuit of spaceflight. This year’s ceremony was hosted by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation, which was founded after the shuttle Challenger accident in 1986 to honor the sacrifices of fallen astronauts each year.

NASA, mission, and partner leaders participate in prelaunch news conference on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) mission. From left are: Derrol Nail, NASA Communications; Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington; Brad Williams, IMAP program executive, NASA Headquarters; Irene Parker, deputy assistant administrator for Systems for NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service; Denton Gibson, launch director, NASA’s Launch Services Program, NASA Kennedy; Julianna Scheiman, director, NASA Science Missions, SpaceX; Arlena Moses, launch weather officer, 45th Weather Squadron, U.S. Space Force. The IMAP mission and its two rideshares – NASA’s exosphere-studying Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory – will orbit the Sun near Lagrange point 1, about one million miles from Earth, where it will scan the heliosphere, analyze the composition of charged particles, and investigate how those particles move through the solar system. Launch is targeted for 7:32 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Sept. 23, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.

During sunrise on Oct. 30, 2020, the mobile launcher for the Artemis I mission, atop crawler-transporter 2, departs Launch Pad 39B and moves slowly along the crawlerway to return to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The nearly 400-foot-tall mobile launcher was at the pad for 10 days, while engineers with Exploration Ground Systems and Jacobs performed several tasks, including a timing test to validate the launch team’s countdown timeline, and a thorough, top-to-bottom wash down of the mobile launcher to remove any debris remaining from construction and installation of the umbilical arms. Artemis I will test the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024.

From left, Kelvin Manning, acting center director, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center; Shawn Quinn, Exploration Ground Systems program manager; Lorna Kenna, Amentum Vice President and program manager; Lakiesha Hawkins, assistant deputy associate administrator, Moon to Mars Program office; Howard Hu, Orion program manager; Debbie Korth, Orion deputy program manager; Keith Shireman Lockheed Martin Vice President of Lunar Exploration Campaign, participate in a handover ceremony of NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft to crews with the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems Program at the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, May 1, 2025. The spacecraft will be transported to the Multi-Payload Processing Facility to undergo fueling and processing for prelaunch operations. The Artemis II test flight is the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign and is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.

Technicians with NASA and Lockheed Martin operate a 30-ton crane to move NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell inside the Neil A. Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. The move prepares for the upcoming installation of four solar array wings and spacecraft adapter jettison fairings for the agency’s first crewed flight test under the Artemis campaign. 

A member of the space crop production team pours substrate and controlled release fertilizer into a Veggie plant pillow on Thursday, May 29, 2025, inside the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The plant pillows, along with Veg-03 MNO seed films, which will carry seeds of Red Russian kale, Wasabi mustard greens, and Dragoon lettuce, are set to fly aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station to grow in the space environment to study how microgravity impacts crop development compared to ground-grown plants. Seed films enable seed handling and planting of seeds into plant pillows allowing for astronaut choice of crops to grow. Plants can provide whole food nutrition, improve menu variety, and positively impact behavioral health of astronauts on long duration missions to the Moon and Mars and space crop research aboard the orbiting laboratory is enabled by NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division and the International Space Station Program.

Technicians with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program attach the Orion stage adapter to the interim cryogenic propulsion stage atop the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket inside Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2025. During the Artemis II test flight, the Orion stage adapter separates from the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, deploying four science payloads into high-Earth orbit. Up next, the Orion spacecraft and its launch abort system will stack atop the Orion stage adapter to complete integration and prepare for the launch of four astronauts around the Moon and back in early 2026.

Clouds and the Sun illuminate the sky on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, as NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft stand vertical at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Artemis II test flight will take Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), around the Moon and back to Earth no later than April 2026.

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, soars into the sky after lifting off from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida at 10:19 a.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. This daytime long exposure photo was taken from Kennedy’s Press Site near the historic countdown clock. The Psyche mission will study a metal-rich asteroid with the same name, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This is NASA’s first mission to study an asteroid that has more metal than rock or ice. Riding with Psyche is a pioneering technology demonstration – NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment – which will be the first test of laser communications beyond the Moon.

Technicians with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program attach the Orion stage adapter to the interim cryogenic propulsion stage atop the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket inside Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2025. During the Artemis II test flight, the Orion stage adapter separates from the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, deploying four science payloads into high-Earth orbit. Up next, the Orion spacecraft and its launch abort system will stack atop the Orion stage adapter to complete integration and prepare for the launch of four astronauts around the Moon and back in early 2026.

On Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in advance of a planned lift off at 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface.(Multiple values)

The sunrise peeks between NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop and the mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. The Artemis II test flight will take Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), around the Moon and back to Earth no later than April 2026.

A member of the space crop production team pours substrate and controlled release fertilizer into a Veggie plant pillow on Thursday, May 29, 2025, inside the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The plant pillows, along with Veg-03 MNO seed films, which will carry seeds of Red Russian kale, Wasabi mustard greens, and Dragoon lettuce, are set to fly aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station to grow in the space environment to study how microgravity impacts crop development compared to ground-grown plants. Seed films enable seed handling and planting of seeds into plant pillows allowing for astronaut choice of crops to grow. Plants can provide whole food nutrition, improve menu variety, and positively impact behavioral health of astronauts on long duration missions to the Moon and Mars and space crop research aboard the orbiting laboratory is enabled by NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division and the International Space Station Program.

NASA astronaut Suni Williams poses for photos during her arrival back at the Launch and Landing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, ahead of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The first launch attempt on May 6 was scrubbed. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Williams and fellow crew member Butch Wilmore are the first to launch to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:25 p.m. EDT on Saturday, June 1.

On Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in advance of a planned lift off at 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface.(Multiple values)

The upper stage for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket that will power the agency’s Artemis II mission and send astronauts around the Moon is shown inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, March 10, 2025, after being transported from United Launch Alliance’s Delta Operations Center at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The interim cryogenic propulsion stage is a liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen-based system that will fire its RL10 engine to give the Orion spacecraft the big in-space push needed to fly around the Moon and back.

On Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in advance of a planned lift off at 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface.(Multiple values)

Clouds and the Sun illuminate the sky on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, as NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft stand vertical at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Artemis II test flight will take Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), around the Moon and back to Earth no later than April 2026.

Shannon Gregory, chief of Flight Operations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, stands in front of one of the agency’s Airbus H135 (T3) helicopters inside a hangar at Kennedy’s Launch and Landing Facility in Florida on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. Gregory leads his team to provide support at launches and recoveries, securing the airspace, shooting video, and coordinating with mission control.

James Spann, senior scientist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Space Weather Observations, participates in a science briefing on NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) mission and its two rideshares – NASA’s exosphere-studying Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory – at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025. NASA’s IMAP will use 10 science instruments to study and map the heliosphere, a vast magnetic bubble surrounding the Sun protecting our solar system from radiation incoming from interstellar space. The three missions will orbit the Sun near Lagrange point 1, about one million miles from Earth. Launch is targeted for 7:32 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Sept. 23, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.

A long exposure image captures the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon spacecraft at 11:43 a.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Crew-11, carrying NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, along with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, are on their way to the International Space Station for a long duration mission.

NASA’s crawler-transporter 2, carrying NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft, arrives Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to troubleshoot the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. Once complete, the SLS rocket will roll back to Launch Complex 39B to prepare to launch four astronauts around the Moon and back for the Artemis II test flight. 

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 crew members walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of launch on Friday, March 14, 2025. NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers (front, left) and Anne McClain (front, right), along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov (second row, left), and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi (second row, right) are scheduled to lift off aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket at 7:03 p.m. EDT, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy. Crew-10 is the tenth crew rotation mission with SpaceX to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

On Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in advance of a planned lift off at 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface.(Multiple values)

Technicians with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems use a crane in the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare to lift the left forward segment for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket boosters on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. The left forward segment will be transferred into High Bay 3 where it will be attached to the center forward segment on mobile launcher 1. The twin solid boosters, five segments on each side, will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.

Clouds and the Sun illuminate the sky on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, as NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft stand vertical at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Artemis II test flight will take Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), around the Moon and back to Earth no later than April 2026.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrive back at the Launch and Landing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, ahead of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The first launch attempt on May 6 was scrubbed. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Wilmore and Williams are the first to launch to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:25 p.m. EDT on Saturday, June 1.

The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission arrives at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Abort System facility on July 10, 2021, after being transported from the Florida spaceport’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility earlier in the day. Teams with Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs will integrate components of the launch abort system onto the spacecraft. Launching later this year, Artemis I will be a test of the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon.

Clouds and the Sun illuminate the sky on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, as NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft stand vertical at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Artemis II test flight will take Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), around the Moon and back to Earth no later than April 2026.

Earlier this year, the Florida Panthers won their first NHL championship and brought victory to the state of Florida. As part of its championship tour, the Stanley Cup made a visit to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Pictured here is the silver Stanley Cup with NASA’s iconic Vehicle Assembly Building, which currently houses components of the agency’s Artemis II mission, shown in the background at the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday Sept. 17, 2024.

Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program transport the upper stage for the agency’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket from the Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the spaceport’s Vehicle Assembly Building on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. Technicians fueled the SLS upper stage, known as the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, with hydrazine for its reaction control system at the MPPF and will now integrate the four-story propulsion system with SLS rocket elements atop mobile launcher 1.

The Test and Operations Support Contract (TOSC) Kimberly-Clark RightCycle program team of April Smith and An Huynh recently earned a Fiscal Year 2021 Sustainable Environment Awareness (SEA) Award Citation. The Kennedy Space Center employees received the honor in SEA’s Waste Management category. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is being replaced with Kimberly-Clark brand, where possible, as collection containers are placed in all applicable TOSC facilities at Kennedy. All supplier PPE is collected, placed in a container, and shipped back to the company to be recycled into usable products.

Technicians with Exploration Ground Systems prepare to transfer and lift the right forward segment for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket boosters into High Bay 3 inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. The right forward segment will be attached to the center forward segment on mobile launcher 1. The twin solid boosters, five segments on each side, will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.

On Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in advance of a planned lift off at 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface.(Multiple values)

Technicians with NASA and Lockheed Martin operate a 30-ton crane to move NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell inside the Neil A. Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. The move prepares for the upcoming installation of four solar array wings and spacecraft adapter jettison fairings for the agency’s first crewed flight test under the Artemis campaign. 

From right to left, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui, NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, along with and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov wave to family and friends as they walk out of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during the second launch attempt of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. Crew-11 is scheduled to lift off aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket at 11:43 a.m. EDT, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.

From left, Richard Jones, CCP (Commercial Crew Program) deputy program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; Steve Stich, program manager for CCP; Dana Hutcherson, CCP deputy program manager at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida; and Deb Cole, CCP technical manager, pose with the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission flag near the countdown clock at the NASA News Center at Kennedy on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. The Crew-9 mission will send NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket.

NASA’s Artemis III core stage boat-tail and RS-25 engines are shown inside the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. Used during the assembly of the SLS (Space Launch System) core stage for Artemis III, the boat tail is a fairing-like structure that protects the bottom end of the core stage. NASA’s Pegasus barge delivered the boat-tail, along with other hardware for future Artemis campaigns to NASA Kennedy on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.

Members of the Iron Dames, from left to right, Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Christina Williams, business development specialist NASA Kennedy; and Iron Dames Rahel Frey, visit NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, to discuss their project to promote and support women in sports, and enable them to compete on equal terms with men in fields of jobs including driving, mechanics, engineers, and team leaders. The all-female team started in motorsports and became the first all-female team to win a race in the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championships at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida.

Flowers placed before the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida commemorate NASA’s Day of Remembrance on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. The mirror was dedicated in 1991 to honor all astronauts who lost their lives on missions or during training. During the Day of Remembrance, NASA centers across the country honor those astronauts who have fallen in the pursuit of space exploration.

NASA’s crawler-transporter 2, carrying NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft secured to mobile launcher 1, rolls back Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to troubleshoot the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. Once complete, the SLS rocket will roll back to Launch Complex 39B to prepare to launch four astronauts around the Moon and back for the Artemis II test flight.

Inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians with the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems use a crane to lower the left forward center booster segment for the NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket onto the left center center segment atop the mobile launcher on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. The NASA “worm” insignia can be seen on both the center center booster segments. The boosters will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.

Pam Sullivan, director, GOES-R Program, NOAA, participates in a prelaunch news conference on Monday, June 24, 2024, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to discuss National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U) mission. The GOES-U satellite is the final addition to GOES-R series, which serves a critical role in providing continuous coverage of the Western Hemisphere, including monitoring tropical systems in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The two-hour launch window opens at 5:16 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 25, for the satellite’s launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

As part of NASA’s NextGen STEM project, students from Florida’s Montverde Academy, Storm Grove Middle School, and Whispering Pines School, as well as a homeschool collective from Georgia, participate in an environmentally focused Earth Day briefing inside the News Auditorium at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 20, 2023. Along with the students participating in person, middle- and high-school students across the country had the opportunity to ask questions of the panel via phone to discuss how technology and science coexist with nature at Kennedy.

Team members working inside the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Sept. 23, 2021, meticulously assemble ground support equipment that will protect shipment of the Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo) flight hardware for preparations before it launches in 2022. MSolo is a commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer modified to work in space and it will help analyze the chemical makeup of landing sites on the Moon, as well as study water on the lunar surface. MSolo, scheduled to first launch in 2022, is part of four of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Delivery Service missions where under the Artemis program, commercial deliveries will include science experiments, testing of technologies and demonstrations of capabilities to help NASA explore the Moon and prepare for human missions.

The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission is transported from Kennedy Space Center’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility to the Florida spaceport’s Launch Abort System Facility on July 10, 2021. Teams with Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs will integrate components of the launch abort system onto the spacecraft. Launching later this year, Artemis I will be a test of the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon.

Technicians with NASA and Lockheed Martin operate a 30-ton crane to move NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell inside the Neil A. Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. The move prepares for the upcoming installation of four solar array wings and spacecraft adapter jettison fairings for the agency’s first crewed flight test under the Artemis campaign. 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soars upward after liftoff from the launch pad at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1 a.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. The Falcon 9 carries NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft. NASA’s Launch Services Program managed this launch. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the IXPE mission. Ball Aerospace, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft operations with support from the University of Colorado at Boulder. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the Explorers Program for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The IXPE spacecraft includes three space telescopes with sensitive detectors capable of measuring the polarization of cosmic X-rays, allowing scientists to answer fundamental questions about extremely complex environments in space where gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields are at their limits. The project is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency.

John Gagosian, director, Joint Agency Satellite Division, participates in a prelaunch news conference on Monday, June 24, 2024, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to discuss National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U) mission. The GOES-U satellite is the final addition to GOES-R series, which serves a critical role in providing continuous coverage of the Western Hemisphere, including monitoring tropical systems in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The two-hour launch window opens at 5:16 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 25, for the satellite’s launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Technicians with NASA and Lockheed Martin operate a 30-ton crane to move NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell inside the Neil A. Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. The move prepares for the upcoming installation of four solar array wings and spacecraft adapter jettison fairings for the agency’s first crewed flight test under the Artemis campaign. 

The upper stage for NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket sits in the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, after teams with the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems Program transported the four-story propulsion system from the spaceport’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility (MPPF). Technicians fueled the SLS upper stage, known as the interim cryogenic propulsion stage, with hydrazine for its reaction control system at the MPPF and will now integrate the four-story propulsion system with SLS rocket elements atop mobile launcher 1.

Technicians with NASA and Lockheed Martin operate a 30-ton crane to move NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft out of the Final Assembly and System Testing cell inside the Neil A. Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. The move prepares for the upcoming installation of four solar array wings and spacecraft adapter jettison fairings for the agency’s first crewed flight test under the Artemis campaign. 

Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, participates in a prelaunch news conference on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) mission. NASA’s IMAP will use 10 science instruments to study and map the heliosphere, a vast magnetic bubble surrounding the Sun protecting our solar system from radiation incoming from interstellar space. This mission and its two rideshares – NASA’s exosphere-studying Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory – will orbit the Sun near Lagrange point 1, about one million miles from Earth. Launch is targeting 7:32 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Sept. 23, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.

The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission arrives at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Abort System facility on July 10, 2021, after being transported from the Florida spaceport’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility earlier in the day. Teams with Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs will integrate components of the launch abort system onto the spacecraft. Launching later this year, Artemis I will be a test of the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon.

The upper stage for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket that will power the agency’s Artemis II mission and send astronauts around the Moon is shown inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, March 10, 2025, after being transported from United Launch Alliance’s Delta Operations Center at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The interim cryogenic propulsion stage is a liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen-based system that will fire its RL10 engine to give the Orion spacecraft the big in-space push needed to fly around the Moon and back.

Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro is photographed in the audience during an award ceremony held in her honor on June 24, 2022, at the Florida spaceport’s visitor complex. The National Space Club Florida Committee presented Petro with the Dr. Kurt H. Debus Award for her contributions to America’s aerospace efforts within the state of Florida. The award – originating in 1990 – is named after Kennedy’s first director.

A member of the space crop production team pours substrate and controlled release fertilizer into a Veggie plant pillow on Thursday, May 29, 2025, inside the Space Systems Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The plant pillows, along with Veg-03 MNO seed films, which will carry seeds of Red Russian kale, Wasabi mustard greens, and Dragoon lettuce, are set to fly aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the International Space Station to grow in the space environment to study how microgravity impacts crop development compared to ground-grown plants. Seed films enable seed handling and planting of seeds into plant pillows allowing for astronaut choice of crops to grow. Plants can provide whole food nutrition, improve menu variety, and positively impact behavioral health of astronauts on long duration missions to the Moon and Mars and space crop research aboard the orbiting laboratory is enabled by NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division and the International Space Station Program.

Clouds and the Sun illuminate the sky on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, as NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft stand vertical at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Artemis II test flight will take Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), around the Moon and back to Earth no later than April 2026.

Inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians with the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems integrate the left forward center booster segment for the NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket onto the left center center segment atop the mobile launcher on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. The NASA “worm” insignia can be seen on both the center center booster segments. The boosters will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.

"I was on console as a part of the primary launch team [for Artemis I]. I was the Orion system specialist for Guidance, Navigation, and Control. … In a few missions, we're sending astronauts to the Moon again, so being a part of the very, very first mission [was memorable]. … I wasn't here in 2017 when they first began discussions, but [I can’t even explain how it felt] that within just the four-year journey, I could see how far we had come: from when we were talking about getting the hardware here, to the hardware arriving, and then [to realize] ‘Oh, it's going today, we’re going!’ “… From a personal standpoint, I'm a person of faith, so for me, it was like: We launched at night — it was in the darkest part of the [night]. … Once the rocket launched, [I saw] how it illuminated such a dark space. So even when you're in a dark space, you can let your light shine. And it won't just shine for you and those that are immediately around you, but even people that you don't know will notice it, even people that you will never see will notice your light shining and be inspired.” — Ales-cia Winsley, Guidance, Navigation, and Flight Control Engineer, Kennedy Space Center Interviewer: NASA / Michelle Zajac

As part of NASA’s NextGen STEM project, students from Florida’s Montverde Academy, Storm Grove Middle School, and Whispering Pines School, as well as a homeschool collective from Georgia, participate in an environmentally focused Earth Day briefing inside the News Auditorium at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 20, 2023. Along with the students participating in person, middle- and high-school students across the country had the opportunity to ask questions of the panel via phone to discuss how technology and science coexist with nature at Kennedy.

On Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in advance of a planned lift off at 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface.(Multiple values)

On Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in advance of a planned lift off at 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface.(Multiple values)

NASA astronaut Raja Chari places a flower before the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida during NASA’s Day of Remembrance on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. The mirror was dedicated in 1991 to honor all astronauts who lost their lives on missions or during training. During the Day of Remembrance, NASA centers across the country honor those astronauts who have fallen in the pursuit of space exploration.

The engine section of NASA’s Artemis IV SLS (Space Launch System) core stage arrives at the Space Systems Processing Facility (SSPF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, after being transported from the spaceport’s Vehicle Assembly Building. NASA’s Pegasus barge delivered the core stage engine section housing the four RS-25 engines from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana to NASA Kennedy on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. The engine section is one the most complex and intricate parts of the rocket stage that will help power the Artemis missions to the Moon.

Teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida installed four “quad pods” around the Artemis III core stage engine section inside the spaceport’s Space Systems Processing Facility on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. These structures are used to support the engine assembly during operations. The engine section will be transferred to the NASA Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building for final integration.

NASA’s crawler-transporter 2, carrying NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft secured to mobile launcher 1, rolls back Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to troubleshoot the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. Once complete, the SLS rocket will roll back to Launch Complex 39B to prepare to launch four astronauts around the Moon and back for the Artemis II test flight.

During sunrise on Oct. 30, 2020, the mobile launcher for the Artemis I mission, atop crawler-transporter 2, departs Launch Pad 39B and moves slowly along the crawlerway to return to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The nearly 400-foot-tall mobile launcher was at the pad for 10 days, while engineers with Exploration Ground Systems and Jacobs performed several tasks, including a timing test to validate the launch team’s countdown timeline, and a thorough, top-to-bottom wash down of the mobile launcher to remove any debris remaining from construction and installation of the umbilical arms. Artemis I will test the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon. Under the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024.

Ken Bowersox, Associate Administrator, NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate, participates in NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Flight Readiness Review at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. Launch is targeted for 1:17 p.m. EDT Sept. 28, 2024, from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will launch to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s ninth crew rotation mission for NASA as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

Shannon Gregory, chief of Flight Operations at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, stands in front of one of the agency’s Airbus H135 (T3) helicopters inside a hangar at Kennedy’s Launch and Landing Facility in Florida on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. Gregory leads his team to provide support at launches and recoveries, securing the airspace, shooting video, and coordinating with mission control.

Crews with NASA and Lockheed Martin pose for a photo in front of NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft inside the Neil A. Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. Technicians operated a 30-ton crane to move the spacecraft from  the Final Assembly and System Testing cell to prepare for upcoming installation of four solar array wings and spacecraft adapter jettison fairings for the agency’s first crewed flight test under the Artemis campaign.

On Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in advance of a planned lift off at 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface.(Multiple values)

NASA’s crawler-transporter 2, carrying NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft secured to mobile launcher 1, approaches the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the sun sets on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, to troubleshoot the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. Seen in the background is also mobile launcher 2, which will be used on future Artemis flights beginning with Artemis IV. Once complete, the SLS rocket will roll back to Launch Complex 39B to prepare to launch four astronauts around the Moon and back for the Artemis II test flight.

Technicians with Exploration Ground Systems integrate the right forward segment atop the center forward segment on NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket booster inside the Vehicle Assembly Building’s High Bay 3 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. The twin solid boosters, five segments on each side, will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.

Denton Gibson, launch director, Launch Services Program, NASA, participates in a prelaunch news conference on Monday, June 24, 2024, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to discuss National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U) mission. The GOES-U satellite is the final addition to GOES-R series, which serves a critical role in providing continuous coverage of the Western Hemisphere, including monitoring tropical systems in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The two-hour launch window opens at 5:16 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 25, for the satellite’s launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is seen during sunrise on the launch pad of Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, ahead of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are the first to launch to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft 10:52 a.m. EDT.

On Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander is rolled out of the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in advance of a planned lift off at 2:18 a.m. EST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One will carry NASA and commercial payloads to the Moon to study the lunar exosphere, thermal properties, and hydrogen abundance of the lunar regolith, magnetic fields, and the radiation environment of the lunar surface.(Multiple values)

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrive back at the Launch and Landing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, ahead of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The first launch attempt on May 6 was scrubbed. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Wilmore and Williams are the first to launch to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:25 p.m. EDT on Saturday, June 1.

Inside a laboratory in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checking Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, testing is underway on the Molten Regolith Electrolysis (MRE) on Sept. 13, 2022. This is a high-temperature electrolytic process which aims to extract oxygen from the simulated lunar regolith. Extraction of oxygen on the lunar surface is critical to the agency’s Artemis program. Oxygen extracted from the Moon can be utilized for propellent to NASA’s lunar landers., breathable oxygen for astronauts, and a variety of other industrial and scientific applications for NASA’s future missions to the Moon.

The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission is transported from Kennedy Space Center’s Multi-Payload Processing Facility to the Florida spaceport’s Launch Abort System Facility on July 10, 2021. Teams with Exploration Ground Systems and contractor Jacobs will integrate components of the launch abort system onto the spacecraft. Launching later this year, Artemis I will be a test of the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket as an integrated system ahead of crewed flights to the Moon.

From left, NASA Communications’ Leah Martin; Environmental Planning Group Lead in Kennedy Space Center's Environmental Management Branch Don Dankert; Kennedy Environmental Protection Specialist Jeff Collins; Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Stanley Howater; and Stennis Space Center's Kelly McCarthy participate in an environmentally focused Earth Day briefing inside the News Auditorium at the Florida spaceport on April 20, 2023. As part of NASA’s NextGen STEM project, students from Florida’s Montverde Academy, Storm Grove Middle School, and Whispering Pines School, as well as a homeschool collective from Georgia, participated in person during the briefing, while middle- and high-school students across the country had the opportunity to ask questions of the panel via phone to discuss how technology and science coexist with nature at Kennedy.

Technicians with Exploration Ground Systems integrate the right forward segment atop the center forward segment on NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket booster inside the Vehicle Assembly Building’s High Bay 3 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. The twin solid boosters, five segments on each side, will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B.

NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore arrives back at the Launch and Landing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, ahead of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. The first launch attempt on May 6 was scrubbed. As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, Wilmore and fellow crew member Suni Williams are the first to launch to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:25 p.m. EDT on Saturday, June 1.

Derrol Nail, NASA Communications, participates in a prelaunch news conference on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) mission. NASA’s IMAP will use 10 science instruments to study and map the heliosphere, a vast magnetic bubble surrounding the Sun protecting our solar system from radiation incoming from interstellar space. This mission and its two rideshares – NASA’s exosphere-studying Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Follow On–Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory – will orbit the Sun near Lagrange point 1, about one million miles from Earth. Launch is targeting 7:32 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Sept. 23, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy.

From left, Jennifer Kunz, associate director, technical, and Janet Petro, center director, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida participate in an employee town hall meeting held on Thursday, May 9, 2024, at Kennedy’s Operations Support Building II. Center leadership provided the workforce a center update, safety presentation, and answered employee questions during the town hall.