A crew of four moon-bound astronauts will remain on the ground for at least a month after NASA delayed the launch of the Artemis II mission. During critical pre-launch testing Monday, mission managers uncovered a number of issues that prevented the completion of the test.

NASA is now planning a March launch date for the four astronauts — three from the U.S. and one from Canada — on a ten-day mission to circle the moon and return to Earth, traveling farther than any humans have ventured into deep space.

Issues leading to that delay began about an hour into Monday’s test, known as the wet dress rehearsal. As the team began fueling the rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sensors picked up a hydrogen leak. Super-chilled hydrogen is used as the fuel for the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

Hydrogen is an efficient propellant for rockets — but its molecules are so tiny and light they can escape even the tightest of seals. Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said they had troubleshooted the initial leak, but when they began to pressurize the tank, another leak surfaced.

“And so as we began that pressurization, we did see that the leak within the cavity came up pretty quick,” said Blackwell-Thompson.

(L/R) NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, NASA Associate Administrator Lori Glaze, launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, and manager of NASA’s Space Launch System Program, John Honeycutt, hold a news conference on the Artemis II mission at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Tuesday.

Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP via Getty Images

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Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP via Getty Images

Hydrogen leaks plagued testing of NASA’s Artemis I mission in 2022. Blackwell-Thompson said lessons learned from that uncrewed flight were utilized for Artemis II, but there’s more investigation is needed.

The wet dress rehearsal uncovered other issues — including a problem with the Orion capsule, which will carry the crew to the moon. While no one was on board Monday, teams practiced preparing the spacecraft for its passengers. A valve that pressurizes the vehicle required additional attention and took more time to close the hatch than anticipated.

Teams also uncovered issues with cameras due to cold weather and audio dropouts across communication channels. “As always, safety remains our top priority, for our astronauts, our workforce, our systems and the public,” said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman in a post on X, and that NASA will only launch when the agency is ready.

Work now begins to fix the issues. NASA will require another wet dress rehearsal before giving the “GO” to put astronauts on board. “All in all, a very successful day for us on many fronts,” said Blackwell-Thompson. “Then, on many others, we got some work we’ve got to go do.”

The earliest launch window for another attempt is March 6. NASA has additional launch opportunities on March 7, 8, 9 and 11.

The crew of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen were released from quarantine and will remain in Houston, Texas. They’ll re-enter quarantine about 14 days ahead of the next launch attempt and make the trip to the Kennedy Space Center six days before liftoff.

Artemis II is testing key systems of the Orion spacecraft, like its maneuverability and life support systems, ahead of the planned Artemis III mission that will take humans to the lunar surface. The Artemis II will mark the first time humans have returned to the moon since the final Apollo lunar mission in 1972.

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from revoking legal protections for Haitians enrolled in the Temporary Protected Status program, granting a last-minute reprieve to 350,000 immigrants who were set to lose their deportation protections on Tuesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes indefinitely paused the planned termination of Haiti’s TPS program, explicitly barring the federal government from invalidating the legal status and work permits of active enrollees and from arresting and deporting them. 

In an opinion accompanying her order, Reyes issued a forceful rebuke of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to end the TPS policy for Haitians.

Reyes concluded Noem’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious” and in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act, writing that it failed to fully consider “overwhelming evidence of present danger” in crisis-stricken Haiti, which remains plagued by political instability, gang violence and widespread poverty.

Reyes also found Noem’s decision was “in part” rooted in “racial animus,” citing disparaging remarks that the secretary and President Trump have made about Haiti and immigrants.

“Kristi Noem has a First Amendment right to call immigrants killers, leeches, entitlement junkies, and any other inapt name she wants,” Reyes wrote. “Secretary Noem, however, is constrained by both our Constitution and the APA to apply faithfully the facts to the law in implementing the TPS program. The record to-date shows she has yet to do that.”

In a statement, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin suggested the Trump administration would ask the Supreme Court to intervene in the case.

“Supreme Court, here we come,” she said. “This is lawless activism that we will be vindicated on.”

“Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago, it was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades,” McLaughlin added.

TPS was created by Congress in 1990. Since then, Democratic and Republican administrations have used the policy to provide temporary legal refuge to foreigners from countries facing armed conflict, an environmental disaster or another emergency that makes their return unsafe.

The Trump administration has moved to dismantle most TPS programs, raising the specter of deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Venezuela.

The Trump administration argues these programs attract illegal immigration and that they have been abused and extended for too long by Democratic administrations.