NASA plans to launch four astronauts on a long-awaited trip around the moon as early as April 1, it announced Thursday.
Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said teams are on track to roll the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft back to the launch pad at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on March 19.
“Everything is going pretty well,” Glaze said at a news briefing.
The mission, called Artemis II, will be the first time on which NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule carry people. It will also be the first time astronauts have journeyed to the moon in more than 50 years.
On the 10-day mission, the crew — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — is expected to circle the moon, traveling farther from Earth than any humans have before.
Liftoff is scheduled for 6:24 p.m. ET April 1, though the date depends on NASA teams’ completing checkouts of the rocket while it’s in the hangar, as well as subsequent work at the launch pad.
NASA decided to press ahead with a launch attempt in less than three weeks after mission managers and top NASA officials gathered for two days for what’s known as a flight readiness review — a meeting during which the agency formally certifies a rocket and spacecraft for flight.
Glaze said Wiseman, Koch, Glover and Hansen took part virtually in the flight readiness review and provided their perspectives.
“Having them join us in this review really reinforced the importance of having open, honest discussions about our path forward and about the risk that we’re asking them to take,” she said.
The astronauts are in training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. They are scheduled to enter quarantine there Wednesday to limit their exposure to germs before the launch. If all goes according to plan, the astronauts will then travel to the Kennedy Space Center on March 27, according to Shawn Quinn, manager of NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program.
The 322-foot-tall Space Launch System rocket has been in its hangar for repairs since NASA rolled it back from the launch pad on Feb. 25.
The move followed a key fueling test on Feb. 19, known as a “wet dress rehearsal,” in which NASA practiced almost every step of a simulated launch countdown. Although the rehearsal was successful, engineers later discovered a blockage in the flow of helium to part of the rocket’s upper stage. That prompted NASA to roll it back for repairs and forgo any launch opportunities in March.
Quinn said engineers recently replaced a seal responsible for the helium blockage. Teams also installed fresh batteries on the rocket and the Orion spacecraft and are testing various systems on the booster.
The Feb. 19 wet dress rehearsal was NASA’s second attempt to fully load the Space Launch System rocket with more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant. A first wet dress rehearsal earlier that month was cut short after engineers uncovered a different issue: leaking hydrogen fuel from the tail end of the rocket. That problem forced NASA to rule out the available launch opportunities in February.
NASA has launch opportunities from April 1 through April 6. It initially did not include April 2 as a possibility, but Glaze said additional analyses were undertaken to add the date. NASA also has another chance on April 30 if needed.
The agency declined to offer launch availabilities beyond April if there are any additional delays.
The only previous spaceflight this rocket and capsule have completed was an uncrewed flight around the moon in 2022 — the Artemis I mission. Before it launched, that mission was delayed six months because of hydrogen leaks.
NASA recently announced a major overhaul to its Artemis moon program. After Artemis II, the agency’s previous plan was for the Artemis III mission to land astronauts on the moon in 2028. Instead, that mission is now scheduled for mid-2027, and it will stay in low-Earth orbit to conduct technology demonstrations. Those tests include rendezvous and docking with one or both commercially built lunar landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin.
After that, the Artemis IV is set to launch in 2028 and land astronauts on the moon.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the changes aim to increase safety and reduce delays to achieve President Donald Trump’s goal of returning astronauts to the moon and establishing a long-term presence on the surface.
