The Artemis II mission that will take a crew of astronauts around the moon and back to Earth is expected to launch no earlier than February 6, 2026.

Video shows the NASA WB-57 plane touching down with a jolt, its wings bouncing as yellow fire and white smoke bursts from beneath it.

A NASA video (above) reveals in great detail how its upcoming Artemis II mission is expected to play out. The space agency released the animation last year, but seeing that the Artemis II astronauts could be heading to the moon as early as February 6,

What everyone agrees on is that NASA needs a new spacecraft capable of relaying communications from Mars to Earth. This issue has become especially acute with the recent loss of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. NASA’s best communications relay remains the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has now been there for 20 years.

NASA's space shuttle Challenger completed 10 missions before it broke apart during a launch in 1986, killing seven astronauts.

"What makes the event even more extraordinary is that it did not involve a single volcano, but multiple active sources."

New simulations performed on a NASA supercomputer are providing scientists with the most comprehensive look yet into the maelstrom of interacting magnetic structures around city-sized neutron stars in the moments before they crash.

The agency has bumped up the wet dress rehearsal to increase its chances of launching within the February window, but could an Arctic blast interfere?