A second propellant-loading test on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket wrapped up Thursday night, giving senior managers enough confidence to proceed with plans to send four astronauts around the Moon as early as March 6.
Unlike the first attempt to fill the SLS on February 2, Thursday’s practice countdown at Kennedy Space Center in Florida produced no significant leaks. Technicians replaced seals at the launch pad after hydrogen escaped from the rocket’s main fueling line earlier this month. The new seals held during this test.
“Overall, those fixes performed quite well yesterday,” said Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s exploration programs. “We managed to fully fuel the SLS rocket within the planned timeline.”
The outcome keeps the Artemis II mission on schedule for liftoff as soon as next month. NASA abandoned a series of February launch opportunities after a persistent hydrogen leak emerged during the first Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR).
“We’re now targeting March 6 as our earliest launch attempt,” Glaze said. “I am going to caveat that. I want to be open and transparent with all of you that there is still work pending. There’s a lot of forward work that remains to be done.”
If teams finish that work, Artemis II could lift off within a two-hour window opening at 8:29 pm EST on March 6 (01:29 UTC on March 7). NASA also has launch opportunities on March 7, 8, 9, and 11, though the mission could slip to April. There are roughly five days each month when the mission can depart Earth, once the Moon’s position, the flight trajectory, and thermal and lighting constraints are taken into account.
The Artemis II flight is expected to last nine to ten days, carrying NASA’s Orion spacecraft with commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen around the far side of the Moon before returning to Earth for a Pacific Ocean splashdown. Wiseman’s crew will set the record for the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth and will be the first people to fly to the Moon’s vicinity since 1972.
