NASA clears Artemis II for April 1 moon mission launch

15:20

By: Dakir Madiha

NASA clears Artemis II for April 1 moon mission launch

Four astronauts stand one week from becoming the first humans to fly toward the moon in over 50 years. NASA targets April 1 for the Artemis 2 launch, a 10-day test flight. The crew will loop around the moon's far side and return aboard the Orion spacecraft atop the Space Launch System rocket.

The team includes NASA commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. They entered quarantine in Houston on March 18 and will head to Kennedy Space Center about five days before liftoff. The flight will mark Glover as the first person of color, Koch as the first woman, and Hansen as the first non-American to travel to the moon.

The path to launch faced hurdles. NASA first aimed for February 6, but a liquid hydrogen leak during a February 2 dress rehearsal forced a delay. A second rehearsal on February 19 succeeded, yet engineers later found a helium flow issue in the rocket's upper stage. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman ruled out a March launch on February 21. Technicians returned the rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building on February 25 for fixes.

Engineers traced the helium problem to a clogged joint and redesigned it, said Shawn Quinn, NASA Exploration Ground Systems program director. The SLS rocket rolled back to Launch Pad 39B on the evening of March 19 after a 12-hour, six-kilometer trip from the assembly building.

In a March 12 readiness review, Lori Glaze, acting NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development, said the team remains on track for an April 1 liftoff. The launch window runs through April 6, with a targeted time of 6:24 p.m. EDT. Officials confirmed on March 24 that the mission proceeds without issues and the crew stays healthy.

Once in orbit, Orion will spend about 24 hours in a high Earth orbit before firing engines for a trans-lunar injection burn. The crew will take four days to reach the moon, fly by its far side at a closest approach of roughly 4,000 miles, then follow a free-return trajectory to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego. The path will take the astronauts farther from Earth than any human before, surpassing Apollo 13's 1970 record.

Artemis 2 will validate Orion's life support systems, test manual flight capabilities, and check lunar-distance communications. These steps pave the way for Artemis 3, now eyed for mid-2027, with a crewed lunar landing targeted for early 2028.