Feb. 12, 2026, 4:04 p.m. ET
This week on Space Beat, host Rob Landers and USA TODAY NETWORK Florida Space Team reporter Eric Lagatta discuss the carefully orchestrated dance NASA and SpaceX completed to prioritize Crew-12‘s mission to the International Space Station to make way for Artemis II’s inevitable launch.
That said, Artemis II is now delayed until at least March as a wet dress rehearsal found leak issues with the SLS rocket.
And finally, Elon Musk stunned the space community this week with a full reversal of his Earth to Mars trajectory posting on X that his focus was shifting from the Red Planet to the lunar surface with plans to build a growing moon city first.
Click here to watch or scroll down.
Read more about all of the stories on this week’s episode:
Crew-12 ready to launch
Artemis II delayed until March
Elon Musk’s big shift from Mars to the moon
USA TODAY Network – Florida video editor Rob Landers is a veteran journalist who has been covering Florida and space topics for nearly three decades. He can be reached at rlanders@gannett.com
