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NASA now says March is the earliest window for a launch of the Artemis II mission after it found a liquid hydrogen leak during what’s known as a “wet dress rehearsal” this week.
The space agency had been targeting a Feb. 8 launch date for the mission, which will send four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon.
“To allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal, NASA now will target March as the earliest possible launch opportunity for the flight test,” the space agency said in a statement.
The next launch window opens on March 6 and closes on March 11.
NASA says there are windows of a few days each month when the mission could possibly launch, based on “complex orbital mechanics” that account for Earth’s rotation and the moon’s orbiting of Earth.
The team had begun loading the rocket with millions of litres of hydrogen midday Monday as part of the rehearsal, before the leak was identified. NASA says its engineers spent several hours troubleshooting the leak around an interface that’s used to route the hydrogen into the rocket’s core stage, putting the team behind.
“Attempts to resolve the issue involved stopping the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage, allowing the interface to warm up for the seals to reseat, and adjusting the flow of the propellant,” NASA said in their update.
Problems also came up with a valve on the vessel, while ground audio also dropped out at times during the rehearsal and “closeout operations” took longer than planned, according to NASA.
Despite the issues, the NASA team told reporters during a Tuesday news conference that the rehearsal also came with some wins.
For one, the crew was able to complete hydrogen tanking despite the leak, which NASA’s Lori Glaze called a “tremendous success.” The team was also able to gather more data and implement lessons learned from the earlier Artemis I launch in 2022, according to Glaze.
“All in all, a very successful day for us on many fronts. And then on a couple of others, we’ve got some work we’ve got to go do,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, launch director for NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program.
Artemis II astronauts, from left, NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen pose for a photograph during rollout of the Artemis II space launch system rocket and Orion spacecraft to Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 17. (Kim Shiflett/NASA)
Another good thing? The NASA team expects they’ll be able to fix the issues with the rocket without moving the vessel from the launchpad.
Transporting the rocket to and from the pad is no easy feat — its last journey to the pad in January took nearly 12 hours, as the massive vessel is transported at super-slow speeds in order to prevent components from being damaged in transit.
In a post on X, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said rooting out issues like these is “precisely why” wet dress rehearsals are done.
“These tests are designed to surface issues before flight and set up launch day with the highest probability of success,” Isaacman wrote.
“Safety remains our top priority,” he said. “We will only launch when we believe we are as ready to undertake this historic mission.”
- Are you going to Florida to watch the Artemis II launch? We want to hear from you. Send an email to [email protected].
As a result of the changed schedule, NASA said the four astronauts on the mission — Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch — were released from quarantine this morning.
The four had entered quarantine on Jan. 21 to prevent them from getting sick ahead of the planned February launch window. They will go back into quarantine about two weeks before the next launch opportunity.
WATCH | How does a backup astronaut prepare for Artemis II?:
How does a backup astronaut prepare for Artemis II?
The Canadian astronaut is Jeremy Hansen’s backup for NASA’s Artemis II mission around the moon, which could launch this month if all final preparations go to plan.
The mission is the second in the multibillion-dollar Artemis moon program, following an uncrewed flight in 2022. That first Artemis flight was similarly delayed due to a hydrogen fuel leak.
Rather than touching down on the moon’s surface, the goal of Artemis II is to test the capsule’s life support and other vital functions of the vessel, ahead of an eventual Artemis III mission which would see the agency’s first astronaut moon landing since 1972.
Artemis III would seek to explore the moon’s unexplored south pole, while the broader Artemis program aims to establish a more sustained presence on the moon.
NASA leaders haven’t set a date for the next wet dress rehearsal, but said Tuesday they would assess the data gathered from the first test before making a new plan.
