NASA managers say they have completed testing of the Space Launch System 🚀after a recent countdown rehearsal and are ready to move into preparations for a launch as soon as late August.
NASA plans to roll the mobile launch platform carrying SLS back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) early July 1, weather permitting. Once back in the VAB, crews will spend several weeks preparing the vehicle to return to the pad for the Artemis 1 launch.
That launch, known as Artemis I, would send the Orion capsule, without any astronauts on board, in orbit around the moon. Then.. It would be followed by Artemis II, perhaps in 2024, in which four astronauts would fly in Orion around the moon but not land. The first landing could come on 2025, but that date depends on the success of the prior missions and availability of the vehicles....
NASA will set a specific target launch date after replacing hardware associated with the leak. The first launch window would come between Aug. 23 and Sept. 6.
NASA got most of the way through the test, known as a “wet dress rehearsal,” this week, fully fueling the Space Launch System rocket’s two stages with more than 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. But the simulated countdown was cut short with 29 seconds to go because of a hydrogen leak.