NASA NEWS CONF DURING SLS/ORION ARTEMIS II ROLL-OUT, Jan 17, 2026, KSC, 9:00 am ET

NASA will begin to roll out the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on January 17, 2026 at 7:00 am ET. SLS/Orion is being readied to launch Artemis II, the first crewed flight around the Moon since the Apollo era.  NASA is targeting February 6 for the launch, but many tests remain to be conducted and it would not be surprising for the date to change.

NASA will livestream the roll-out as well as a news conference the day before (January 16, 12:00 pm ET) and another the day of (January 17, 9:00 am) on its YouTube channel. Details are in the NASA press release, which says:

A pre rollout mission news conference, live feed of rollout, and a media gaggle will stream on NASA’s YouTube channel. Individual streams for each of these events will be available from that page. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.

The time of rollout is subject to change if additional time is needed for technical preparations or weather.

All times are Eastern. Events are as follows:

Friday, Jan. 16:

12 p.m.: Artemis II Rollout, Mission Overview News Conference

• John Honeycutt, Artemis II mission management team chair
• Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director, Exploration Ground Systems
• Jeff Radigan, Artemis II lead flight director, Flight Operations Directorate
• Lili Villarreal, landing and recovery director, Exploration Ground Systems
• Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate

Saturday, Jan. 17:

7 a.m.: Rollout, Artemis II Live Views from Kennedy Space Center feed begins

9 a.m.: Artemis II Crew Rollout Media Event

• NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and the Artemis II crew, including NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will answer questions about their preparations and the mission for media in-person at the countdown clock.

NASA’s crawler-transporter 2 will carry the 11-million-pound stack at about one mile per hour along the four-mile route from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B, on a journey that will take up to 12 hours.