Unusually cold weather forecast for Florida over the weekend pushed back the earliest possible launch date for the Artemis 2 mission and delayed a critical fuel test for the Space Launch System rocket.
On Friday, NASA said in a statement that plans to load more than 730,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen into the 322-foot-tall rocket will have to wait until weather conditions improve. The agency is now targeting Monday, February 2 for the tanking portion of what is known as a wet dress rehearsal.
“Over the past several days, engineers have been closely monitoring the cold weather and windy conditions in Florida,” NASA said in a statement. “Managers have assessed hardware capabilities against projected forecasts and decided to change the timeline given the rare Arctic outbreak affecting the state. Teams and preparations are underway at the launch pad for a wet dress rehearsal.”
The testing delay also means the first potential launch date for Artemis 2 will not come before February 8. The change has reduced the available dates for launching Artemis 2 in February to three options: February 8, 10 or 11.
NASA said any additional delays to the start of the 49-hour countdown for the wet dress rehearsal would result in “day-by-day variations” in the potential launch schedule. The launch date will not be finalized until data from the tanking test is analyzed.
The Artemis 2 mission will be the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft and will be the closest humans will attempt to the Moon in more than 50 years.
In addition to rescheduling the Artemis 2 schedule, NASA and SpaceX are in the final stages of preparations for a slightly accelerated launch of the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station. Two NASA astronauts, Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, will fly to the orbiting outpost along with European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos astronaut Andrey Fadeyev.
However, the flight date for that mission remains uncertain as teams assess upcoming launch opportunities for Artemis 2.
“We’re always thinking about how we can operate our missions safely and I want to assure you that that’s always on our minds as we’re working on these missions and trying to maximize the capabilities of our crews and maximize our opportunities to launch into space,” Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, said during a media briefing Friday.
Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said that although Feb. 11 is the earliest possible date for Crew-12 to fly, the agency’s priority will be to give the Artemis 2 mission as much opportunity as possible to launch. If the tanking test of the SLS rocket goes well and the flight readiness review clears Artemis 2 for launch on Feb. 8, it creates a few different scenarios, he said.
“If they launch or are in orbit, we’ll put it off until the 19th. We’ll then stand down, let them do their operation,” Stich said. “If they get on the countdown and they try on the 8th and then have a problem where they stop, we could go a few days later, as early as the 13th.”
Additionally, Crew-12 will launch 11 days after launch on February 10 or 11. The priority after this will be to see the planned 10-day Artemis 2 mission finished before the launch of Crew-12.
If NASA ultimately decides to delay the launch of Artemis 2 during the February window, Crew-12 could launch as early as February 11 or 12.
“Depending on what launch date they (Artemis 2) come up with, we know what our initial launch date will be. And then we also know, if they get on the countdown and there’s a problem, how quickly we can go,” Stich said. “We have determined all timelines related to crew quarantine, when SpaceX will move its hardware [Space Launch Complex 40]When we’re stuck in static fire, dress dry.
“I would say those timeframes will be a little bit dynamic because, in particular, if we get off the launch pad and we’re trying to establish steady fire around Artemis operations, we’ll be working around Artemis in all of those scenarios.”
One of the areas where NASA is trying to separate the missions concerns the suit up room in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkouts Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is where the crew don their flight and entry suits and do a leak check before heading to the launch pad.
Another area of conflict mitigation is in Department of Defense assets that are deployed in the event of an unexpected in-flight incident during climb. Both the Artemis program and the Commercial Crew Program use similar capabilities provided by DoD before reaching orbit.
Crew-12 will fly aboard the Dragon Freedom spacecraft, which will be its fifth flight. The Falcon 9 rocket first stage booster supporting the mission, tail number 1101, will make its second flight after launching the Starlink 6-88 mission in early January.
Lee Achard, senior mission manager for SpaceX’s Human Spaceflight Mission Management Division, said B1101 will be the first to use the newly constructed Landing Zone 40 (LZ-40) near the launch pad. After the stage separates during flight, the booster will flip and return to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station less than eight minutes after liftoff.
“This will be our primary landing site for the Falcon 9 boosters that subsequently return to the launch site, and we have completed all (eastern) range and Space Force certification to be ready for this mission,” Achard said. “If we ever need it, we still have access to Landing Zone 2, but it will be primarily for Falcon Heavy launches, where we have two returns to launch site side boosters.”
Whenever it launches, Crew-12 will dock at the zenith – or space-facing – port on the Harmony module to begin its approximately eight-month, long-duration mission.
Speaking from her pre-launch quarantine at the Johnson Space Center in Texas, Crew-12 commander Jessica Meyer said she looks forward to speaking with the Artemis 2 crew if they are in space together.
“I would be really excited to talk to Christina […] And also my classmate, Victor Glover, and my astronaut uncle, Reed Wiseman and Jeremy Henson,” Meyer said. “So hopefully, we’ll get an opportunity to make that connection.”
