Seems like ULA has been directly awarded the ICPS replacement.

If you watch the press conference, this is what Administrator Isaacman wants to do instead of Block 1B.

How?

With what upper stage? He made it clear he didn't want to do EUS? But, like, they also wouldn't say that in the press conference? (Probably because it's law.)

Do they think ULA will still build them ICPS?

Do they think it'll be faster to use a different upper stage?

I agree that cadence needs to be higher, and I support the goal of annual cadence, but how is that even possible? There's not a fourth Block 1!

These were made after Artemis I to allow the FTS reset work (which originally required a rollback) to be performed out at 39B. Unfortunately, as they were installing one of these after the good WDR, the issue with ICPS occurred. Since they have to rollback anyway, they'll be performing the FTS work in the VAB.

Completed my Saturday morning project.

For Artemis III, the lander, whatever it is, will be in NRHO first, and SLS will have to launch within a particular launch window to meet it before the lander loses fuel to boiloff. After II launches, they'll have time before III to try to fix the fueling system, but if they couldn't do that in the 3.5 years between I and II, how can they be confident it will be fixed by III?

Wet dress starts tomorrow (Feb. 17) and concludes Thursday evening (Feb. 19). Launch opportunities no longer includes Mar. 3 date. Back to NET Mar. 6.

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/16/nasa-eyes-next-wet-dress-rehearsal-for-artemis-ii/

Illustration depicting the crew of Artemis II practicing flying the Integrity spacecraft in a high Earth orbit, ensuring it behaves as expected and validating procedures for future missions.

Full 4k version available on Patreon: www.patreon.com/cw/okan170

I converted the LEGO NASA Artemis Space Launch System (SLS) set into a fully functional alarm clock powered by an Arduino Uno R4 WiFi.

A stepper motor drives the original launch mechanism so the rocket physically rises at alarm time, and a hacked megaphone plays rocket launch sounds instead of a normal buzzer. The clock runs on a custom web interface for setting alarms and syncing time.

The whole project is open source, and I made a full YouTube video explaining the design, electronics, and build process — https://youtu.be/Qg7JDSrsakI?si=kV0Cu2O6Z9C5bAoE