NASA targeting January 31, 2026 for Artemis-2 dress rehearsal countdown
The flight plan for the Artemis-2 mission around the Moon. Click for original.
NASA engineers are now targeting January 31, 2026 for the manned dress rehearsal countdown of the Artemis-2 SLS rocket and Orion capsule.
The upcoming wet dress rehearsal is a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket. During the rehearsal, teams demonstrate the ability to load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants into the rocket, conduct a launch countdown, and practice safely removing propellant from the rocket without astronauts inside the spacecraft.
During several “runs,” the wet dress rehearsal will test the launch team’s ability to hold, resume, and recycle to several different times in the final 10 minutes of the countdown, known as terminal count. The rehearsal will count down to a simulated launch at 9 p.m. EST, but could run to approximately 1 a.m. if needed.
This rehearsal will include the four-person crew inside the Orion capsule, which will once launched take them in a wide ten-day Earth orbit that will swing them past the Moon and then back to Earth. The crew entered quarantine at the end of last week to reduce the chance they will catch any illnesses prior to launch.
This mission carries great risk, as the capsule’s life support system has never been used in space before, while the viability of its heat shield remains questionable.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The flight plan for the Artemis-2 mission around the Moon. Click for original.
NASA engineers are now targeting January 31, 2026 for the manned dress rehearsal countdown of the Artemis-2 SLS rocket and Orion capsule.
The upcoming wet dress rehearsal is a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket. During the rehearsal, teams demonstrate the ability to load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants into the rocket, conduct a launch countdown, and practice safely removing propellant from the rocket without astronauts inside the spacecraft.
During several “runs,” the wet dress rehearsal will test the launch team’s ability to hold, resume, and recycle to several different times in the final 10 minutes of the countdown, known as terminal count. The rehearsal will count down to a simulated launch at 9 p.m. EST, but could run to approximately 1 a.m. if needed.
This rehearsal will include the four-person crew inside the Orion capsule, which will once launched take them in a wide ten-day Earth orbit that will swing them past the Moon and then back to Earth. The crew entered quarantine at the end of last week to reduce the chance they will catch any illnesses prior to launch.
This mission carries great risk, as the capsule’s life support system has never been used in space before, while the viability of its heat shield remains questionable.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Actually, the Wet Dress Rehearsal for Artemis 2 will not be done with crew aboard.
Second paragraph of the linked press release (emphasis mine):
“The upcoming wet dress rehearsal is a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket. During the rehearsal, teams demonstrate the ability to load more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants into the rocket, conduct a launch countdown, and practice safely removing propellant from the rocket without astronauts inside the spacecraft.”
These are potentially dangerous tests as the glitchy and error-prone semi-comedic WDR process for Artemis 1 reminded us. NASA will be taking quite enough liberties with the lives of the Artemis 2 crew without also gratuitously sticking them atop a rocket while the ground crew practices something they’ve had no real experience with in 3-1/2 years. It would be bad – and stupid – enough to lose the crew in space, but far worse to lose them in another Apollo 1-esque catastrophe on the ground.
Speaking of Apollo 1, its anniversary was yesterday. Challenger’s is today. Columbia’s is coming up on Sunday. NASA has a track record of losing a crew every couple of decades, and now they are planning on a mission with serious safety compromises in a little more than a week. This is the NASA catastrophe season, and they are doing what they do best to create their catastrophes. It is as though the agency has a poor memory with deadly lapses at regular intervals.
I am worried.
Edward: Ditto for me.
Taking liberties?
Artemis II is the same as Artemis I–
like the exploding Dragon capsule before the burst disk was the same as the ones after it.
Oh–was I not supposed to mention that, or the second hernia at Boca?
Jeff Wright,
Mention anything you want – living in the past seems to be kind of your specialty. I suppose that’s why you continue to refer to SpaceX’s south TX factory and launch site as “Boca” instead of Starbase, its actual legal name these days.
Also feel free to ignore any minor differences between SpaceX vehicle development problems and those of MSFC and its legacy contractors – like, say, the fact that SpaceX isn’t planning to fly any people aboard still-iffy vehicles.