New Delhi: NASA has completed the Artemis II Flight Readiness Review on 12 March, and polled ‘go’ to proceed towards the launch. NASA rolled out the fully-stacked
Artemis II rocket to the launch pad in mid-january, with a wet-dress rehearsal on 3 February, followed by a second one on 19 February. Helium leaks discovered during these rehearsals resulted in the rocket being rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for troubleshooting. NASA now plans to roll back the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spaceship to the launch pad 39B for a launch attempt on 1 April. NASA aims to launch the Artemis II mission on 1 April, 2026, with additional opportunities available throughout the first week of April and the last day of the month.
The Artemis II mission will see Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Grover, Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen go on a 10 day lunar flyby, the first since the Apollo Programme over 50 years ago. This is actually a test flight, the first crewed mission on the brand new hardware developed for the Artemis programme, including the SLS rocket and the Orion spaceship. NASA engineers reviewed the challenges during the mission so far, the work done so far, and the strategies and methods for the remaining work. The crew joined the Readiness Review virtually. All the teams polled go at the end of the Flight Readiness Review.
Crew is ready to fly
Flight Operations Director for Artemis II, Norm Knight said, “The Flight Readiness Review over the past few days was excellent and really heavily focused on crew risk and mission success. As you have heard, we remain on track for an April launch opportunity. Our teams at mission control in Houston are fully prepared to support this mission. They have been training side-by-side with the astronauts, with countless simulations, really working through every scenario. The team is ready to both support the astronauts and the spacecraft systems through the journey around the Moon, till they are reunited with their families after splashdown.”
