When the launch window opens on February 6, Artemis II will be the first time humans ride NASA’s Space Launch System. But the mission’s real deliverable isn’t a lunar flyby. It’s proof that the US can run a safe, repeatable deep-space industrial machine—at a price voters and lawmakers will keep paying.
On paper, Artemis II is a simple idea: four astronauts, one lap around the Moon, then home. In practice, it is a stress test of almost everything NASA has rebuilt since the Shuttle era—hardware, supply chains, procedures, and political patience.
This weekend’s rollout at Kennedy Space Center is the sort of spectacle that makes governments look competent: a 322-foot rocket-and-capsule stack,
