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 on Wednesday evening.
After several delays, the long-awaited journey is now as close as it’s come to getting under way at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 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 it could be delayed by as much two hours if necessary.
“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.
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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, including its Orion crew capsule, 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 there could be up to four launch attempts within that window.
Each potential launch date and time comes with a slightly different trajectory. If the crew does head to the moon on Wednesday, it will almost certainly mean that they will break the record, set in 1970 by the crew of Apollo 13, for the farthest that any humans have ever ventured from Earth, said Orion program manager Howard Hu during the briefing.
What to know about NASA’s historic Artemis II moon mission
A Wednesday departure would also put the crew would on track to view the sun being eclipsed by the moon during their trip, with an opportunity to see the solar corona – the sun’s outer atmosphere – emanating from behind the moon’s dark edge.
In general, trajectories are carefully screened, Mr. Hu said, so that any eclipses the capsule flies through are not of a duration that would adversely affect the solar energy needed to charge its batteries.
The April launch opportunity comes just days after NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, unveiled an accelerated plan for sending astronauts back to the moon and establishing a permanent presence on the surface in the form of a lunar base.
On Sunday, Lori Glaze, who is NASA’s acting associate administrator overseeing the Artemis program, was asked if the new plan meant there was more riding on the mission and more pressure to succeed.
“There’s always been a lot riding on this mission,” Dr. Glaze said, “But what I can tell you is that the rollout of the moon base plan and the ideas for the accelerated launch cadence, in my opinion, have actually energized our teams.”
During a virtual Q&A with reporters earlier on Sunday, crew members said they have been making final preparations for the coming launch attempt, including a dress rehearsal with spacesuits.
They also took time to bring their families to see the rocket built to carry them around the moon.
“It was pretty special to take them out to the pad and show them the rocket in the daylight and then again all lit up in its spectacular beauty at night,” Colonel Hansen said.
They also met with the mission’s lunar science lead, Kelsey Young, to go over details of what they will be watching for when they can view the moon’s far side and potentially observe some geological features that have not previously been seen by human eyes.
When asked during the Q&A what it was like to look up at the moon and see it as a destination, Ms. Koch said, “It is our strong hope that this mission is the start of an era when everyone, every person on Earth, can think of it as also a destination.”