Overview
- NASA’s SLS and Orion are in multi‑day checkouts at Launch Complex 39B, including range communications testing and hydrazine servicing for the solid‑rocket boosters.
- Technicians are outfitting Orion with crew tablets, medical kits, and science payloads, notably the Avatar organ‑on‑a‑chip experiment to study bone marrow cell responses to deep space.
- A wet dress rehearsal targeted for Feb. 2 will load roughly 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants and run a full countdown, with its results and the Flight Readiness Review determining use of the Feb. 6–11 launch window.
- The four‑person crew entered official quarantine on Jan. 24 to protect health and maintain schedule flexibility for a roughly 10‑day lunar free‑return that does not include a landing.
- Following unexpected Avcoat damage on Artemis I, NASA plans to fly Artemis II with the current heat shield and a modified reentry path, a decision some former astronauts and experts continue to question.