This evening, NASA's Artemis 1 moon rocket will start its wet dress rehearsal, which will last through Monday.
The SLS rocket and capsule could be on their way to the moon by the end of the summer.
A call to stations for ground teams at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled to begin today. The Artemis 1 team will load fuel into the big rocket's first and second stages over the course of 48 hours. propellant loading is scheduled to start at 7 a.m. if crews don't have any problems tonight or tomorrow. On Monday
The Artemis 1 moon mission is explained in photos.
This is the second time that the Artemis 1 stack has been atop the historic Launch Complex 39B. The first launch for SLS will send an uncrewed spaceship on a month-long mission around the moon. NASA plans to have astronauts fly on the next two Artemis missions, with the goal of landing on the moon in the 20th century.
The Artemis 1 stack has been at Pad 39B since June 6 after spending more than a month inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC. The first Artemis 1 wet dress rehearsal was held at the beginning of April. NASA technicians tried to fuel the rocket three times but failed. April's wet dress rehearsal was scrubbed after mechanical issues and leaks were found during the fuel transfer.
If Monday morning's fuel loading goes according to plan, NASA will conduct a mock launch at . The sun goes down at 4:30 pm There is an extra two hours built in to account for any additional testing that needs to be done. The SLS's core stage will be loaded first, followed by the launch vehicle's upper stage.
In a call with reporters earlier this week, the Artemis launch director said that the successful fueling of each stage will be a significant accomplishment. We will go into terminal count operations if we get through those milestone.
After the rocket is successfully fueled, mission operators plan to hold the rocket for a while before putting it down. The clock will be brought all the way to T 10 seconds before a final count is initiated.
SLS and Orion will stay at the pad for a few more days to prepare the stack for its journey back to the VAB. The data from the wet dress will be analyzed by the Artemis 1 team and any needed maintenance work will be done.
NASA hopes to launch Artemis 1 as early as late August if there are no more problems with the vehicle or ground systems. They won't pick a target date until all of the wet dress data is analyzed and they are confident that the rocket is ready to fly.
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