NASA is eyeing March 6 to launch four astronauts on a highly anticipated flight around the moon, agency officials announced Friday.
The date was set after NASA completed an elaborate fueling test and launch-day walkthrough Thursday, filling its Space Launch System rocket with more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant and simulating nearly every step of the countdown to liftoff.
The successful dress rehearsal means astronauts could be two weeks away from venturing to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
The mission, called Artemis II, will be the first time that NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule carry people. During their 10-day trip, the four astronauts are expected to reach a greater distance from Earth than any humans have gone before.
Thursday’s hourslong fueling test was a huge step for NASA. It was the second attempt at what’s known as a wet dress rehearsal; the first one, on Feb. 2, was cut short after the agency discovered hydrogen fuel leaking from part of the tail end of the rocket. The leaks forced mission managers to forgo all launch opportunities this month.
Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said the March 6 launch date still hinges on completing work at the launch pad to prepare the rocket for flight and ultimately depends on the full results from Thursday’s practice run.
Teams are also expected to conduct what’s known as a flight readiness review late next week, in which mission managers and top NASA officials will need to formally certify the rocket and spacecraft for flight.
“Those things are all in front of us,” Glaze said Friday in a news briefing. “We need to successfully navigate all of those. But assuming that happens, it puts us in a very good position to target March 6.”
In the weeks between the first and second wet dress rehearsals, engineers worked to fix the leaks they’d discovered. They replaced two seals on fueling lines and conducted other repairs and tests at the launch pad. Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said that work appeared to pay off, as the seals were “rock solid” on Thursday.
“Getting through this wet dress was an important milestone for us,” she added.
The four Artemis II crew members — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — did not participate in the wet dress rehearsal, but Glaze said several of them were at Kennedy Space Center in Florida during the test.
“I was able to speak a little bit with with Reid Wiseman, with Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen,” Glaze said. “They’re all very, very excited. I was glad they could be here for the wet dress. They are really getting a lot of anticipation for a potential launch in March.”
The astronauts are expected to enter quarantine Friday afternoon in Houston to minimize their exposure to germs before the mission. Roughly five days before launch, they are expected to fly to Florida and continue their preflight quarantine at Kennedy Space Center.
