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12h ago

NASA Sets Artemis II Rollout for Jan. 17 as Wet Dress Rehearsal Nears

Launch timing hinges on a late-January fueling rehearsal that must prove the rocket and ground systems are ready.

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At Kennedy Space Center, Fla., NASA's moon rocket for the Artemis 1 mission rolls to the launch pad, Thursday, March 17, 2022. Known as the Space Launch System (SLS), the mega-rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft capsule rollouts for the first time Thursday evening on the giant crawler-transporter 2, headed to Launch Complex 39-B. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
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Overview

  • The fully stacked SLS/Orion will leave the Vehicle Assembly Building no earlier than Jan. 17 for a four-mile trip to Pad 39B on Crawler-Transporter 2, a move expected to take up to 12 hours.
  • At the pad, teams will connect ground systems and power up the integrated stack ahead of a late-January Wet Dress Rehearsal to verify fueling and countdown operations.
  • The rehearsal will load over 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants and execute countdown runs to T-33 and T-30 seconds before safing and draining the vehicle.
  • Pending successful test results and a Flight Readiness Review, NASA could target launch opportunities Feb. 6–11, with additional windows on March 6–11 and April 1–6.
  • Engineers recently replaced a bent flight-termination cable, fixed and verified an Orion hatch pressurization valve on Jan. 5, and repaired ground-support leaks, as the crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen—prepares for a 10-day lunar flyby shakedown.