NASA will conduct the second full launch rehearsal of Artemis 2 this Thursday, the space mission that will orbit the Moon with four crew members aboard the Orion spacecraft. Before being able to launch it with the super rocket Space Launch System (SLS), it must successfully complete a crucial test: the test called Wet dress rehearsal, where all the procedures prior to takeoff are executed, including the delicate process of cryogenic fueling and the countdown, excluding the launch itself.
During the first test, conducted on February 2, fuel leaks (liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen at extremely low temperatures) were detected, along with other technical issues that led the space agency team to abort the possibility of launching this highly anticipated mission in February. Since in that month, the launch could only take place on February 6, 7, 8, 10, or 11, the mission was postponed to March.
After analyzing the data collected for several days, NASA has repeated the Wet dress rehearsal. Technicians are already loading the fuel (2,650,000 liters of propellant) into the Space Launch System rocket, while activating the rocket's core stage, which contains the propellant tanks, and charging the flight batteries of the Orion spacecraft. During this test, in which astronauts do not participate, all the procedures prior to takeoff and the countdown are executed to detect any issues before the launch.
During the first attempt, engineers fueled the rocket and conducted an initial countdown test, which was stopped five minutes before the end due to a liquid hydrogen leak. A problem was also detected with a valve associated with pressurizing the hatch of the Orion crew module, which had been recently replaced and required a new adjustment, intermittent interruptions in ground audio, and impacts on some cameras due to the cold weather in Florida during those days.
According to NASA, the second Wet dress rehearsal will conclude around 6:30 a.m. on Friday (Spanish peninsular time), shortly after midnight in Florida, and a press conference will be held on Friday to report the results after the mission management team's analysis.
If the results are satisfactory, a launch date will be set. The first opportunity for launch will be on March 6 (which will already be early morning on March 7 in the Spanish peninsula). The other viable days next month are the 7, 8, 9, and 11, although NASA stated this week that they are evaluating the possibility of adding another day. If it is not feasible and the launch has to be postponed to April, the launch opportunities are on the 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
The crew members of the mission are Americans Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch Victor Glover, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, who must undergo a relaxed two-week quarantine before traveling to the Moon to avoid getting sick before the flight. They already completed this quarantine between January 21 and February 3, but as the trip was postponed due to technical issues, they exited quarantine and continued with training and mission rehearsals. Today's test will determine when they will isolate again in Houston to be ready for the mission.