NASA has set April 1 for the Artemis II launch, with engineers preparing the Space Launch System (SLS) for a rollout to the pad on March 19.
The agency has added April 2 as a backup date, but if Artemis II doesn’t get off the pad in the first week of April, then the next opportunity is April 30. NASA did not disclose the dates beyond that.
NASA will also skip a third Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR), a test in which the rocket is fueled and ground crews work through launch procedures. The first WDR was cut short after a hydrogen leak in the connection between the SLS and ground support equipment exceeded acceptable levels.
The leak was resolved for the second WDR, however, a helium flow-rate fault in the upper stage meant they had to roll it back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for repairs.
Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said in a briefing following NASA Artemis II Flight Readiness Review: “When we tank the vehicle, the very next time, I would like it to be on a day that we could actually launch.
“I would like to do it on launch day. And if we are able to successfully fully tank the vehicle, I want to be able to poll ‘Go to launch’.”
So, no more WDRs. At least from a planning perspective. Glaze also noted one of the risks of repeatedly filling the tanks with cryogenic propellants, saying “every time we tank the vehicle, it takes a little bit of the life out of those tanks.”
The Artemis II crew is scheduled to enter quarantine on March 18 and arrive at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on March 27. If the launch goes as planned, the crew loop around the Moon, marking a first for humans since the days of Apollo. NASA says the spacecraft will take “an outbound trip of about four days and around the far side of the Moon, tracing a figure eight that will extend more than 230,000 miles from Earth before returning home.”
Artemis II will not, however, enter lunar orbit. The plan was for Artemis III to perform that feat until an announcement at the end of February moved the landing mission to Artemis IV and repurposed Artemis III for a 2027 checkout of the lunar landing system in Low Earth Orbit. ®