March 30 (UPI) — NASA officials on Monday started the two-day countdown to the Artemis II mission launch, which will send a crew of four around the moon as they test the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.
After canceling a launch attempt in February because of a helium valve concern, officials said that the only thing they are worried about ahead of Wednesday’s launch is the weather — and the forecast offers an 80% chance for the right conditions.
The 10-day mission, which will take the crew farther from Earth than any human before, is the next step in the agency’s goal of returning humans to the surface of the moon and establishing a permanent presence there.
With mission engineers starting the clock, the crew — Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Commander Reid Wiseman and Pilot Victor Glover — are getting some rest and spending time with their families before starting their own pre-launch activities, officials said.
“The team concluded that everything continues to look good and there are no issues preventing us from pressing ahead,” NASA’s Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said during a media briefing from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“At this point, as we enter the pre-launch phase, we are in a strong posture and the mission remains on track,” he said.
Countdown to launch
The Artemis II launch window starts at 6:24 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, giving NASA two hours if the cumulus cloud cover is too heavy, which mission engineers said is the only thing about the weather forecast they are worried about.
The SLS and Orion was initially rolled out to the launch pad in February but engineers discovered an issue with a helium valve during a wet dress rehearsal and decided to bring the rock back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to check it out.
After replacing the valve, and checking on other systems, the rocket was rolled back out on March 19.
Monday’s mission management team meeting is similar to the flight readiness review but is a faster rundown than that comprehensive effort as each group updates others on their pre-launch progress.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, launch director for the mission, said the launch countdown officially started at 4:44 p.m. EDT on Monday, which corresponds with NASA starting to configure ground facilities at the launch pad.
She noted that, while most people are familiar with a 30-minute or 10-minute countdown, launch countdowns are generally linked to the preparation needed for launch — shuttle countdowns started three days before launch, while commercial launches may often need a countdown of one day or less.
Crew awaits launch
The Artemis crew arrived in Cape Canaveral “on Friday, getting an opportunity for some rest before we work them very hard,” Emily Nelson, the mission’s chief flight director, said of the foursome, which has been in quarantine already for a couple of weeks.
Like many crews of astronauts before them, the Artemis crew has been staying at The Astronaut Beach House, which NASA has owned since 1963 and where space mission crews have spent time ahead of launches for decades.
Before the start of their final meetings and prep for launch, the crew was expected to eat dinner and spend time with their families, all of whom also have been required to comply with some sort of quarantine before getting there.
On launch day, after fuel tanking and last-minute items by a closeout crew around 1:00 p.m. EDT, the crew will board the Orion at 2:00 p.m. EDT to conduct communication system checks, configure the crew module and run the countdown to a 10-minute hold for about 30 minutes, Blackwell-Thompson said.
During that 30-minute hold, mission engineers will run through one more system-by-system before starting the final countdown to NASA’s first crewed mission to the moon in more than 50 years.
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket emerges on Saturday morning from the Vehicle Assembly Building to start its journey to Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI |
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