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NEED TO KNOW

• Meg King's son Cooper became trapped inside a claw machine in Missouri on Saturday, Feb. 7

• She had "glanced" away for just seconds when Cooper, 2, climbed inside to play with the toy balls

• "We were like 'Cooper, try to go back down,' and he was just shaking his head," said King of the incident

A toddler was rescued from inside a claw machine after somehow climbing inside to play while at a recreational center in Missouri.

On Saturday, Feb. 7, Meg King brought her two-year-old son, Cooper, to the Soccer Dome in Webster Grove to watch his brother play. She told local news outletFirst Alert 4that she briefly looked away while Cooper was pretending to play with a claw machine.

Moments later, she heard someone yelling that he had somehow gotten inside and was playing with the toy balls.

"If anyone knew my son Cooper, they would totally understand that he would do something like this," said King, per First Alert 4. "I literally glanced over there. He was pretending to play with the claw machine. I looked away for, I would say, maybe 15 seconds."

Margaret King via Storyful

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King said Cooper was "laughing" and "throwing balls everywhere," while blissfully unaware that he had gotten himself trapped inside the device.

She rushed to call 911 after trying and failing to guide Cooper on how to climb out of the machine.

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"We were like 'Cooper, try to go back down,' and he was just shaking his head," King told First Alert 4.

Officers from the local police and fire department arrived at the scene within minutes. However, it wasn't until someone who worked for the vending company showed up with a key that Cooper was released from the machine.

Margaret King via Storyful

Footage and photos shared online show Cooper playing with the toys inside the claw machine as first responders were stumped about how to get him out. He appeared "perfectly fine, safe and having a ball," King told Storyful.

Since going viral on social media, King said commenters have asked why she didn't try to use the claw to get Cooper out of the machine.

"I was going to comment back that I didn't have enough change since he used it all," she joked, per First Alert 4.

"In today's world, everyone needs someone funny on their TV and what's not funny about a 2-year-old playing in a claw machine?" King concluded.

Read the original article onPeople

Russia Navalny Anniversary

Navalnydiedin an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence that many believed to be politically motivated. His death at the age of 47 left the Russian opposition leaderless and divided, struggling to build an effective or united front without one of its most visible and charismatic figures.

On the second anniversary of Navalny's death, we look at the latest investigation into its cause and the continuing political repercussions, both within Russia and beyond.

Across Russia, Navalny's supporters pay their respects

Navalny's mother,Lyudmila Navalnaya, and his mother-in-law, Alla Abrosimova, were among the mourners laying flowers on his grave. A mound of bouquets rose above the heavy drifts of snow that blanketed Moscow's Borisovsky Cemetery.

Representatives from several European embassies also paid their respects, watched by a conspicuously high security presence. Later, a small choir gathered to sing by Navalny's graveside.

Addressing the crowd, Lyudmila Navalnaya restated her belief that her son waskilled by the Russian authorities, a scenario which has also been backed by several European countries in recent days. "We knew that our son did not simply die in prison," she said. "He was murdered."

The Kremlin has denied the allegations, saying that Navalny died of natural causes.

Flowers were also laid at the memorial to the victims of political repression in St Petersburg. Access to the site was later blocked with temporary fences, local news outlets reported.

European nations believe Navalny was poisoned

The anniversary coincides with the release of a joint statement by five European countries, which said that Navalny was poisoned by the Kremlin with a rare and lethal toxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs.

The foreign ministries of the U.K., France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said on Saturday that analysis in European labs of samples taken from Navalny's body "conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine." The neurotoxin secreted by dart frogs in South America is not found naturally in Russia, they said.

A joint statement said: "Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison."

In a written tribute to Navalny on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron also linked the Kremlin with the opposition leader's death.

"Two years ago, the world learned of the death of Alexei Navalny. I pay tribute to his memory," Macron wrote on social media. "I said then that I believed his death said everything about the Kremlin's weakness and its fear of any opponent. It is now clear that this death was premeditated.

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"Truth always prevails, while we await justice to do the same."

Moscow has vehemently denied its involvement in Navalny's death, saying that the politician had become unwell after going for a walk.

When asked about the allegations by journalists on Monday, presidential spokesperson said that the Kremlin does "not accept such accusations."

"We consider them biased and unfounded. In fact, we resolutely reject them," he said.

Saturday's announcement came as Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, attended theMunich Security Conferencein Germany. She said she had been "certain from the first day" that her husband had been poisoned, "but now there is proof."

"Putin killed Alexei with a chemical weapon," she wrote on social media, describing the Russian leader as "a murderer" who "must be held accountable."

Navalny was the target of an earlier poisoning in 2020, with a nerve agent in an attack he blamed on the Kremlin, which always denied involvement. His family and allies fought to have him flown to Germany for treatment and recovery. Five months later, he returned to Russia, where hewas immediately arrestedand imprisoned forthe last three yearsof his life.

Russia's opposition is struggling to start a new chapter

Navalny's closest allies, as well as otherkey members of Russia's opposition, now continue their fight from exile.

Many have been handed lengthy prison sentences in absentia in Russia and are unable to return home. Some have been designated "terrorists and extremists" by the authorities, a designation that was also applied to Navalny in January 2022.

Yet Russia's opposition has failed to form a united front and a clear plan of action against the Kremlin. Instead, rival groups have traded accusations that some see as efforts to discredit each other and vie for influence.

In one small victory for opposition activists, Europe's leading human rights body, PACE, announced in late January the creation of a new body — the Platform for Dialogue with Russian Democratic Forces — tasked with giving opposition Russians a voice and a formal platform to engage European lawmakers.

It has been heralded as a victory for anti-war Russians, but also attracted criticism as the body was not elected democratically. Members ofNavalny's anti-corruption organizationare also absent from the group

In a statement to mark Navalny's death, Russian members of the Council of Europe's human rights body, PACE, said that Navalny's death was "an inevitable link in a chain of systemic crimes by the Kremlin regime against its own citizens and the citizens of foreign states."

"Alexei Navalny gave his life for a free Russia," the statement said. "We are obliged to ensure that his death was not in vain."

The natural arch, part of the Sant'Andrea sea stacks near the town of Melendugno in the southern region of Puglia, had long been a popular backdrop for wedding proposals ‌and tourist photos.

"This ⁠is an unwanted Valentine's Day gift," Melendugno Mayor Maurizio Cisternino told the local Corriere Salentino newspaper, ⁠calling the collapse "a very hard blow" for the area's image and for tourism.

Cisternino said days of heavy rain, strong winds and ​rough ​seas had battered the coastline ​and ultimately destroyed the arch. "Nature ‌has taken back what it created," he said.

Officials have warned that other parts of the rocky coastline could also collapse, with cracks visible along the cliff, underscoring the growing threat of coastal erosion.

Storms and heavy rain in recent days ‌have also eaten away at long ​stretches of coastline on the Ionian ​Sea, from Ugento to ​the beaches of Gallipoli, damaging beach structures, ‌causing small cliff falls and harming ​ports.

Weeks of ​terrible weather this year have also caused damage estimated at well over a billion euros in southern Italy, including ​a landslide that ‌has forced more than 1,500 people to evacuate ​their homes in the Sicilian town of Niscemi.

(Reporting by ​Crispian BalmerEditing by Ros Russell)

Robert Voets/CBS

They were the closest of allies… until they weren't.

Tiffany ErvinandQ Burdetteworked closely together at the start ofSurvivor 46to somehow survive being stuck on one Yanu, of the worst tribes ever. But an alliance forged out of shared perseverance was shattered at the merge when Q moved against Tiffany and told others about her immunity idol.

That led to a big blow up back at camp and an evenbiggerblow up at Tribal Council. In the end, the friction and drama got both players voted out of the game. And now they're back. So how will Tiffany handle Q if they end up on the same beach at some point onSurvivor 50(premiering Feb. 25 on CBS)? We asked the 35-year-old Tiffany exact that when we sat down in Fiji just days before filming began, and she got into her Q strategy as well as what else she needs to improve upon during her second outing, including "fact-checking everything."

Robert Voets/CBS

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Tell me why you're going to winSurvivor 50, Tiffany.

TIFFANY ERVIN:I'm going to winSurvivor 50because I've spent the last two years thinking about everything I did wrong and how I could come back and make it right.

Give everyone the update what have you've been up to since you last playedSurvivor.

Since I last playedSurvivor, I've left the East Coast. I now live in L.A. I'm an East Coast girl at heart forever, but L.A.'s not been bad. It has been treating me well. The weather's nice. I'm still working on art. I've been producing videos for different media companies since I've been out there freelancing. I've been having a pretty good time.

Why come back and do this again?

Well, the money. That's the obvious answer, but I'm also here because the level of transformation that I feel like I went through after playingSurvivorthe first time, I feel like it can only double or have amazing ripple effects in my life if I do it again. I learned to trust myself a little bit more. I learned to lean on my own opinions versus relying on the opinions of others about what I should do, how I feel about myself. And more than anything, I kind of just want to prove to myself that I can do it again.

Robert Voets/CBS

How do you think the other contestants see you as a player?

That's a question I've been asking myself for quite some time. I don't really know how they see me, but if I had to guess, I would assume that they probably think that I'm a pretty smart player, pretty good strategically, if they watched my season.

But I think that they probably also think that I'm easy to read. They would more than likely think that I'm a person who's going to say what's on my mind 90 percent of the time. So I don't think there's a lot of confusion around how I navigate the game. I don't know how many people see me as a threat. I didn't win a lot of challenges when I was out there last time, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm hoping I'm underestimated. I'm actually banking on it.

What's your biggest weakness as a player?

I think my biggest weakness as a player, at least the last time I played, was not trusting my own intuition and leaning on others, sharing too much information and not double checking my sources. I looked back when I watched my season, and there are so many moments where I was fed information and I didn't question it. If I had questioned it or gone to the source three or four times throughout my season, I think things would've ended a lot differently for me. Now I'm fact-checking everything. I don't care. You don't want me to tell this person that they said my name? I'm asking anyway. I don't care.

Is it surreal being out here with some of these people?

It's absolutely surreal realizing that I'm about to be playing with the people that I've been watching since I started watchingSurvivor. It's so crazy to think about. I've been watchingOzzyandCiriefor years, and now to think I'm about to be competing against them, I am still trying to wrap my mind around it.

Tell me who the people you're really excited to work with.

I'm really excited to work withChristianand I'm really excited to work withMike White.

Why Christian and Mike White?

Well, Mike White, I'm more excited to just kind of kiki with him. He's funny. I feel like our personalities would gel really well and I think he would just be really fun to play with. Christian, I would love to pick his brain watching how his mind works mathematically. That's not a place where I'm super strong, but I think that it would be very interesting to work with him. I feel like I could learn a lot from him. I would love to work with Cirie. She's Cirie! I don't even know how else to say it. I'm a little weary of Ozzy.

Robert Voets/CBS

Ozzy has this larger-than-life reputation when it comes toSurvivorfor being this crazy challenge beast. And obviously that's going to be one of his strengths out here, assuming that he plays the way he played previously. But his social game, I'm weary because Ozzy just seems like a person who could kind of flip flop and go back and forth and change his mind a lot. And he also seems like a person who might want to stick with old-school players and not really be open to working with new-school players. He has something to prove.

That old-school versus new-school thing happened onWinners at War. Do you think that's going to happen again?

Winners at Waris kind of all I have to go on right now. There hasn't been a returning season since fricking 2016, so I do think that naturally that's going to happen. And I think that if people want it to change, they're going to have to actually put in the work to bridge the gap between old-school and new-school.

Dalton Ross

Let's talk about your season. There's three of you out here. Does that help you or hurt you in this game?

Well, considering the people that I'm out here with, it does not help me. It hurts me tremendously. These aren't people that I was super strong allies with during my season. One of was my number one ally and then turned on me. So that is something that has been hanging over my head. And thenCharlie, I thought we were cool, and then he wrote my name down, so it hurts because we're going to be perceived as a trio, but then at the same time, these aren't people that I even really am sure I'm going to work with out here.

How much pre-gaming did you do with other players? Everyone knows it happens.

If I'm being totally honest, the only person I spoke to pre-game was Q. I did not exchange words with anybody before coming out here other than Q. But that's because Q and I are actually real-life friends. So crazy to think about. We're like arch nemeses on TV, but we're real friends. We FaceTime all the time. I'll be on FaceTime with his son. I know his wife.

We're cool, but I cannot depend on that because the first time we played the game, we were so cool and he turned into a ticking time bomb. So I'm not putting any faith in the fact that just because we're friends in real life, it's going to translate out here.

You know what a chaotic element he is, and chaotic elements are very dangerous. So how do you want to handle him the second time around?

My plan to handle Q is to take the opposite approach of what I did last time. I think the reason Q and I have so much friction when it comes to competition is because we're alike in a lot of ways. We have a lot of alpha energy, both of us.

But I think this time, even though it goes against every fiber in my being, I'm going to seemingly take the backseat and allow Q to believe that he's driving the car. I think that the best tool that I have at my disposal out here is Q's ego, and if I learn how to manipulate that to my will, then I can do whatever I want.

Wait, does Q have an ego?

Oh, please. Q's ego is big enough to fly us all home. Please!

What about Charlie? What's your relationship been off the island?

Honestly, Charlie and I are cool too. I don't have really any bad blood with anybody from my season. I told myself as soon as I got back to Ponderosa, I was leaving everything out there on the island. Charlie and I are cool. We text every now and again. No beef. We don't talk as often as Q and I do, but we're cool too. But that doesn't mean it's going to translate out here. Charlie's a very shrewd player. He's smart, he's sneaky, and I thought he had my back last time and there wasn't even an inkling that he didn't. So I'm putting in less faith in Charlie than I am in Q.

What about these two 49 people? You all haven't even seen their season.

I think the best approach to unknown is to go in head first. You got to figure out who they are, what makes them tick, what are they driven by? Are they good allies? Are there things that they do? Do they have quirks that you could kind of pin on them to make other people or dislike them? At the end of it, you got to get to know who they are before you make any assumptions because the easy thing is to be like, "Let's just get the new people out we don't know." But at the end of the day, they could be valuable tools to my game.

Want to be kept up with all things Survivor? Dig deep and sign up for Entertainment Weekly'sfree Survivor Weekly newsletterto have all the latest news, interviews, and commentary sent right to your inbox.

OtherSurvivor 50deep dive player interviews:•Survivor 50star Ozzy Lusth opens up about hitting 'rock bottom of my life'•Survivor 50star Aubry Bracco opens up about the 'freedom when you fall from grace'•Colby Donaldson reacts to playingSurvivorfor the first time without Jerri•Angelina Keeley refused to doSurvivor 50unless they gave her a jacket•Survivor 50's Coach goes deep on evolving from an 'arrogant ass' into the… Tide Walker?•Survivor 50star Jenna Lewis-Dougherty is 'here to f--- you over in every way, shape, or form'•Cirie Fields says winningThe Traitorsdoes not take sting out ofSurvivorloses•Mike White on how he is handlingSurvivor 50castmastes angling forWhite Lotuscameos•Chrissy Hofbeck opens up about controversial season 35 finish and being bashed by previous cast•Rick Devens explains why he is a lunatic that wants to play with other lunatics•Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick wants to prove that 'mom really is a badass'•Christian Hubicki wanted to tell Survivor 50 pre-gamers to 'f--- off'•Genevieve Mushaluk on why watchingSurvivor 50will be more terrifying than playing it•Dee Valladares welcomes being one ofSurvivor 50's biggest threats: 'I want them to come for me'•Q Burdette reveals ridiculous things he did to prep forSurvivor 50•Kamilla Karthigesu feared she would be cut fromSurvivor 50for pregaming•Emily Flippen says 'If I winSurvivor, something crazy has happened'•Jonathan Young shares theSurvivorlessons Boston Rob gave him before season 50

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The actress, who starred in the 1997 episode of the ABC sitcom "Ellen" whereEllen DeGenerescomes out, talked about the support she has received from the LGBTQ community. Dern told hostsBowen Yang and Matt Rogerson the"Las Culturistas" podcastFeb. 11 episode that in order to "affect change," someone had to be "first."

"The idea of culture catching up to storytelling had to be a thing when someone would go first," she said, referring to the "Ellen" episode.

Dern said she was excited to be a part of the episode, which was one of the first times a character came out as gay on TV and came shortly after DeGeneres came out in real life. But the actress said her choice to star in the episode amid her film success in "Jurassic Park" confused the people around her.

She said it was an "honor and privilege" to be a part of the episode alongside her "friend," with other guest stars includingOprah Winfrey,Demi Mooreand Billy Bob Thornton. She called it a "massive moment" but also recalled the series receiving bomb threats and losing advertisers.

"In a way, the assumption is you're going to do this thing and thank God people will wake up, love their relatives and their neighbors, see them, everything will expand, culture will catch up, and it will be a beautiful celebration," she added. But instead, there was "major security for a couple of years for any of us involved, the world went 'no, no, no,' she lost her show."

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Dern faced intense backlash for starring in the episode, once telling DeGeneres on her talk show 10 years after that she did not work for a year and a half after because of it. But, she added, for the LGBTQ community, seeing that representation on screen meant a great deal.

"You go, 'Oh, right.' That's why you want culture to catch up later. Culture is doing it when nobody's caught up," she continued. "It's such a gift."

In the two-part "The Puppy Episode," Ellen's character connects with a woman named Susan – played by Dern – who suggests she might be lesbian, but Ellen rejects the idea. But after Ellen admits the connection to her therapist, played by Winfrey, she rushes to the airport to catch Susan and comes out to her, though mistakenly doing so over the airport's intercom.

"Being part of that moment with Ellen, it wasn't that I was somebody supporting an actor or a friend by being part of the show," Dern said. "But I was holding her hands as they were shaking, and she was looking in my eyes, saying for the first time, 'I'm gay' out loud with people watching."

She continued: "The privilege, the luxury of feeling it for someone in a moment was so beautiful, literally holding space. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Laura Dern on Ellen DeGeneres coming out on TV, making history

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty; Taylor Hill/Getty

NEED TO KNOW

• In the new Netflix documentary Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model, Jay Manuel reveals that he wanted to leave the show much earlier than he actually did

• When he told host and friend Tyra Banks about his desire to exit, Manuel claims she didn't take the news well

• Banks says in the documentary that she did not want to talk about what happened with Manuel

Tyra Banks and Jay Manuel have a long, winding relationship, both professionally and personally.

Banks, 52, brought Manuel, 53, on forAmerica's Next Top Modelwhen it launched its first cycle in 2003. He had previously worked with her as a makeup artist, so when she needed a creative for the show on UPN, she called him up.

For several cycles of the show, the two friends worked together seamlessly, however, Manuel says he got to a point where he decided he was ready to move on to other things. In Netflix's new documentaryReality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model, Manuel reveals the story of his falling out with the model.

Manuel decided in cycle 8 that he was ready to part ways with the show, so he emailed Banks to thank her for everything.

Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic

"She didn't respond," he shares in the documentary. "It was probably the longest three days ever. And she ultimately wrote back just three words. 'I am disappointed.' After that email exchange, all communication just stopped. It should've been the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart, but that did not happen."

Despite wanting to be free of the show, Manuel ended up coming back for cycle 9 at the request of the higher-ups in the network. He was told they just wanted him for one more cycle while they figured out who could replace him. He reveals in the documentary that he had hoped that coming back would give him the opportunity to address Banks.

He quickly realized that would not happen.

"Tyra chose not to speak with me at all while the cameras were off. When they were on, she'd speak to me," Manuel tells PEOPLE exclusively of what happened when he returned to film. "After [trying to leave], I did cycle 9, which was ... torture for me. I was so broken by the end of that cycle because of the mental torture of what was going on."

InReality Check, Banks was asked if she would talk about what went down with Manuel, and she declined, saying she "should call" him and deal with it personally.

"I never got that phone call," Manuel tells PEOPLE of what Banks said when they filmed the documentary about a year ago. "I don't think I'm getting a phone call. She's got my number."

Gregg DeGuire/WireImage

Manuel shares that he last saw Banks in 2017 (five years after he exited the show in 2012 alongside fellow panelists Miss J Alexander and Nigel Barker) when they were at BeautyCon. He says they had a "really nice conversation."

"Other than that, we've had no communication of any sort, text, email, anything," he says. "Tyra and I were close, and when we were in New York shooting, or even in L.A. shooting, she'd be at my house or I'd be at her house, and we would really download. But at the same time, and she knows this to be true, the things that are those really, really trusted important things that she has said to me, I will never repeat. I will forever honor my relationship with her in the past."

Despite everything that happened, Manuel says he's still "very open" to talking to Banks if she wants to.

"I'm in a healed place," he says. "I wish her no ill will."

That includes feeling healed from the way he, Barker and Alexander were removed from the show after cycle 18 in 2012. As the documentary shows, the three were unceremoniously removed together and thought they would be given an opportunity to make a statement to share the news. However, a "leak" in the media claimed all three were "fired."

Manuel tells PEOPLE how it felt to go through that — and what he claims really happened.

Larry Busacca/WireImage

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On a two-year contract at the time, Manuel says he was actually already planning to be done at the end of cycle 18, but that wasn't the case for Barker and Alexander, whom he claims were in the middle of four-year contracts. Just before the "leak" happened, Manuel says all three of them received a phone call telling them their time on the show was over.

"[The network] always was looking for drama. The ratings were going down. They literally threw us under the bus," Manuel claims, adding that the whole situation felt like a "slap in the face."

The show continued for six more cycles, four of which included Banks still at the helm. She was eventually replaced as host by Rita Ora for the final two cycles.

Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Modelis streaming on Netflix now.

Read the original article onPeople

Ground crews at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida partially fueled the 322-foot rocket with liquid hydrogen on Feb. 13 to see if recent repairs to the spacecraft had remedied hydrogen leaksdiscovered during a prelaunch testearlier in the month.

Unexpectedly, though, operators stumbled across an issue with ground support equipment that could cause more headaches for a crucial moon mission that has alreadyslipped at least a month from its target launch date. The mission, known as Artemis 2, is due to send three Americans and one Canadian on a 10-day trip circling the moon.

The first human moon mission in more than 50 years, Artemis 2 will also be the debut crewed launch under NASA's multibillion-dollar program to eventually return astronauts to the lunar surface.

The crew of Artemis II (from left: Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Pilot Victor Glover and Commander Reid Wiseman) answer questions at a press conference as their Space Launch System rocket is transported to Pad 39B January 17, 2026. Artemis II is tentatively scheduled to launch on a mission to th Moon in early February. Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK

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NASA's Artemis 2 mission to fly 4 astronauts around moon. Photos of crew

Here's the latest on the Artemis 2 rocket launch since the mission was postponed from February to at least March.

Space exploration:6 spaceflights ahead in 2026, from NASA moon missions to SpaceX Starship

When is the Artemis launch date? Moon mission delayed until March

Originally slated for liftoff in February, NASA officials have delayed the Artemis 2 moon launch to March from the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida. Under NASA's current timeline, the earliest the mission could get off the ground is March 6.

NASA, though, has not yet announced an official launch date.

Why did NASA delay Artemis 2 mission? Hydrogen leak in SLS

The mission slipped at least a month after NASAconducted a critical fueling testat the beginning of February known as a wet dress rehearsal that uncovered issues with the massive322-foot Space Launch System rocket.

NASA's elaborate launch day rehearsal, intended for ground teams to assess whether the SLS was ready for takeoff, ended with the discovery of a hydrogen leak within the rocket's 212-footcore stage. The issue arose while fueling the vehicle with 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant that were later drained.

The rocket, which has been vertical on the launch pad since mid-January, has not yet needed to be rolled back to the agency's massiveVehicle Assembly Buildingwhere spacecraft are prepared for launch.

NASA engineers work on Space Launch System rocket

Committing to a new launch datewon't happen until NASA conducts another wet dress rehearsal and completes a prelaunch analysis known as a flight readiness review.

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Since the first prelaunch countdown test, ground teams have worked on the SLS rocket, replacing seals where operators "saw higher than allowable hydrogen gas concentrations" and evaluating the cause of the leak,NASA said.

NASA also conducted an unscheduled "confidence test" Thursday, Feb. 12, in which the rocket's core stage liquid hydrogen tank was "partially filled" to assess the area where the seals were replaced, NASA said in its latest missionblog post.

That test also uncovered an issue – this one with ground support equipment that "reduced the flow of liquid hydrogen into the rocket," NASA said. Engineers were expected to purge the rocket of liquid propellants during the weekend and continue inspecting ground equipment before replacing a filter suspected to be the cause of the problem.

A second wet dress rehearsal has not yet been scheduled.

Who will be on the Artemis 2 mission? Astronauts leave quarantine

The crew of Artemis II (from left: Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Pilot Victor Glover and Commander Reid Wiseman) answer questions at a press conference as their Space Launch System rocket is transported to Pad 39B January 17, 2026. Artemis II is tentatively scheduled to launch on a mission to th Moon in early February. Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK

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NASA's Artemis 2 mission to fly 4 astronauts around moon. Photos of crew

Thecrewof Artemis 2 includes three Americans and one Canadian. NASA astronautsReid Wiseman,Victor GloverandChristina Koch, as well as the Canadian Space Agency'sJeremy Hansen,had entered quarantineJan. 21 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston to avoid exposure to illnesses ahead of the launch.

Delaying the mission until March meansthe astronauts have exited quarantineat the Johnson Space Center in Houston, which is protocol ahead of spaceflights to ensure crews avoid exposure to illnesses. They will re-enter quarantine about two weeks ahead of the next launch opportunity before flying to the Kennedy Space Center.

What is the Artemis mission?

NASA'sArtemis programis the agency's ambitious campaign to return Americans to the surface of the moon for thefirst time since the Apollo era came to an end in 1972.

The Artemis 2 astronauts won't be landing, but will instead circle the moon on a 10-day trip to test systems and hardware for future expeditions to the surface. The Orion capsule the crew will pilot – built by Lockheed Martin – is due to travel about 4,700 miles beyond the far side of the moon, taking its passengers the farthest humans have ever ventured in space before returning to Earth.

The mission would come more than three years after Artemis 1 launched Nov. 16, 2022, from the Kennedy Space Center, sending the Orion capsule on a moon-orbiting mission without a crew in the first test of the vehicle.

A moon landing would take place during Artemis 3, which PresidentDonald Trumphas signaled he wants to see happen before the end of his second term.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Will Artemis launch date be pushed again with new issue? What NASA says