People photograph NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion crew capsule ahead of the Artemis II mission launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 29.Brendan McDermid/Reuters
NASA managers responsible for launching the Artemis II mission say their rocket is ready to fly and – unless weather intervenes – they are in a good position to send four astronauts on a 10 day trip around the moon this Wednesday evening.
After several delays, the long-awaited journey is now as close as it’s come to getting under way. If systems on the ground and aboard the rocket continue to perform as expected during final checks, a two-day countdown period will commence on Monday afternoon.
On a Sunday afternoon that brought strong winds and some rain to the coastal region, mission managers said they are monitoring weather predictions for mid-week.
If conditions remain favourable on that day, the launch will be targeted for 6:24 p.m. ET, but could be delayed by as much two hours if necessary.
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“Right now we’re forecast to be 80 per cent go on Wednesday,” said ground systems program manager Shawn Quinn during a briefing with reporters.
Excitement is building at the Kennedy Space Center for the historic mission slated to be the first since 1972 to carry humans beyond low Earth orbit and into lunar space.
The objective of Artemis II is to provide the first end-to-end test of NASA’s lunar transport system with people on board. While the mission does not include a moon landing, Artemis II is seen as a critical step that will enable an ambitious schedule of future flights, with landings on the moon as early as 2028.
Canada’s Jeremy Hansen is a mission specialist on Artemis II and making the trip together with his U.S. crewmates, commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch. All four astronauts arrived in Florida on Friday in advance of a six-day launch window that opens on April 1.
Based on turnaround time at the launch pad it is expected that up to four launch attempts could be within that window.