NASA rolls out the massive Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion crew capsule to it’s launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The Artemis II mission carrying four astronauts around the moon and back — the first time that humans will venture beyond low Earth orbit since the end of the Apollo program in 1972 — is scheduled for no earlier than February 6.

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket with the Orion crew capsule exits the vehicle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., January 17, 2026.

Steve Nesius/Reuters