NASA keeps Artemis II mission launch for March 6 after fuel test

Miami. –NASA reported this Friday that it will maintain the launch window of launch of Artemis II -which will mark the return of humans to the orbit of the Moon after more than half a century- for Friday, March 6 after “a very successful day yesterday”, when the second general test with fuel ended without major setbacks. Executives from the US federal agency emphasized that the tank filling was carried out successfully, as was the simulation of the count, although with some minor setbacks. According to NASA, they learned a lot from the dress rehearsal, “implementing some corrections in aspects such as the seals of the quick disconnect interface, replacing some filters of the ground system and analyzing various aspects of how to implement the dress rehearsal.” “In general, all those corrections worked quite well yesterday,” assured the U.S. federal agency.

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NASA clarified that despite the success of the cold test (Wet Dress Rehearsal), the launch window of March 6 still depends on other technical tests of the Orion capsule and its powerful Space Launch rocket, installed since February on the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, in central Florida. He detailed that they successfully demonstrated the crew module closing activities, as well as the launch countdown.

NASA Prepares the Artemis II Crew

The mission will take four astronauts around the Moon: Commander Reid Wiseman; NASA specialists Christina Koch and Victor Glover; and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The crew members have already started the quarantine period prior to the launch for this mission, which will last approximately ten days and does not include a lunar landing. This was the second cold test of the Artemis II mission after failures in the first one that prevented the launch of the mission with launch windows in February. The mission, which will represent the return of the human being to the Moon after more than half a century, will take a woman, an African-American astronaut and a Canadian to lunar orbit for the first time.