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After several delays to the mission that will take four astronauts around the moon, NASA held a press conference today announcing that Artemis II is on track to launch as early as April 1.
“At the conclusion of the FRR, all the teams polled go to launch and fly Artemis II around the moon, pending completion of some of the work,” said Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.
“Just a reminder to everybody. We talk about it every time we talk about this flight. It’s a test flight. And it is not without risk. But our team and our hardware are ready. We are planning to roll out to the pad, back out to the pad, targeting next week.”
Today’s press conference is about NASA’s flight readiness review β a key near-final step before launch.
Glaze also noted that a new date was added to the launch window, April 2. That means that the Artemis II mission can launch any time between April 1 to April 6.
The Artemis II mission will carry Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen alongside NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch on a flight path around the moon.Β
The astronauts will go into quarantine on March 18. They will then head to the Kennedy Space Center on March 27.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), rolled out to the launch pad in January for a planned launch in February. But first the rocket had to undergo a wet dress rehearsal, where NASA conducts a run-through of a launch, including fuelling it with hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
Why were there delays?
During the first wet dress, the rocket experienced hydrogen leaks, a problem that also arose during the uncrewed Artemis I wet dress rehearsal. That pushed the next launch window to early March.
NASA conducted a second wet dress rehearsal on Feb. 19. It appeared to have resolved the hydrogen leak, but later discovered a problem with helium flow to the upper-stage engines. As a result, the rocket was rolled back the the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on Feb. 25, and NASA ruled out a March launch.
NASA has since addressed the helium issue, installed new batteries for the SLS upper stage, core stage (the orange tank) and solid rocket boosters, and planned to retest the flight termination system, which would destroy the rocket in the event of a loss of control.
Last month, newly appointed NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced a change to the Artemis program, saying Artemis III would no longer aim for a lunar landing. Instead, it would be a test mission to dock with one of its lunar landers, which have been developed under contracts with SpaceX and Blue Origin.