At the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program continues to prepare for the Artemis II circumlunar mission that was recently delayed to September 2025. EGS is finishing certification of new ground systems to support crewed launches of the agency’s Orion spacecraft with its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket beginning with Artemis II.
NASA recently disclosed new issues that the Orion program is working to resolve that are delaying the launch readiness of Artemis II by an additional 10 months. While Orion is working on those issues and determining how long it will take to resolve them, EGS has adjusted their near-term schedules for finishing their certification work and preparing SLS solid rocket booster (SRB) hardware to eventually be stacked for Artemis II. Depending on Orion’s progress, it is hoped that stacking for the mission could begin later this year.