NASA is planning on rolling out the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to the launch pad on Jan. 17 for a launch as soon as Feb. 5, Space.com is reporting.

The mission will carry a four-member crew on a roughly 10-day flight around the Moon and back, testing different tools and plans like life support, space navigation, and deep space operations ahead of future lunar surface missions.

NASA announced that the earliest launch window for Artemis II is Feb. 6, 2026, with 12 more possible dates available from February-April. The Artemis mission, a followup to the Apollo program, hopes to have astronauts back on the moon’s surface by 2027.

NASA’s Artemis II mission is rolling toward the launch pad, marking a major step toward humanity’s next journey around the Moon.

SLS and the Orion spacecraft are fully stacked together inside NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center. Once final tests are complete, the launch vehicle will be rolled out onto the pad at Launch Complex-39A, which should take about 10 hours.

NASA has confirmed the upcoming milestones for its historic Artemis II mission—the first crewed flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, sending four astronauts on a lunar flyby for the first time in over 50 years—with rollout and Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) to set the stage for a potential launch in February.

NASA could be sending a crew on the Orion spacecraft out past the moon in less than a month if everything falls into place. But first the agency has to get its rocket to the launch pad. That could as early as next Saturday when the mobile launcher topped with the Space Launch System rocket and Orion could make the four-mile slow roll atop the crawler-transporter 2 from the Vehicle Assembly

The core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is slated to launch astronauts around the moon since the Apollo era, was rolled out of the space agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility, in New Orleans,