NASA eyes March 6 for Artemis II moon launch : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F00%2F81%2F665114ea4f10aaa332ce771caf68%2Fgettyimages-2256147371.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F00%2F81%2F665114ea4f10aaa332ce771caf68%2Fgettyimages-2256147371.jpg" class="img" alt="NASA' says it's ready to launch four people on a trip around the moon on the Artemis II mission as early as March 6." fetchpriority="high"/> NASA says it is planning a March 6 launch date to ship 4 astronauts on a visit across the moon on the Artemis II mission. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP by way of Getty Photographs conceal caption

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Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP by way of Getty Photographs NASA might launch 4 astronauts on a mission to fly across the moon as quickly as March sixth.

That is the launch date that the house company is now working in direction of following a profitable take a look at fueling of its huge, 322-foot-tall moon rocket, which is standing on a launch pad on the Kennedy Area Heart in Florida.

"That is actually getting actual," says Lori Glaze, appearing affiliate administrator of NASA's exploration techniques growth mission directorate. "It is time to get severe and begin getting excited."

However she cautioned that there is nonetheless some pending work that continues to be to be accomplished out on the launch pad, and officers must conduct a multi-day flight readiness evaluate late subsequent week to ensure that each facet of the mission is really able to go.

"We have to efficiently navigate all of these, however assuming that occurs, it places us in an excellent place to focus on March sixth," she says, noting that the flight readiness evaluate shall be "in depth and detailed."

The Artemis II take a look at flight will ship 4 astronauts on an roughly 600,000-mile journey across the moon and again. It would mark the primary time that folks have ventured to the moon because the ultimate Apollo lunar mission in 1972.

When NASA staff first examined out fueling the rocket earlier this month, they encountered issues like a liquid hydrogen leak. Swapping out some seals and different work appears to have fastened these points, based on officers who say that the newest countdown costume rehearsal went easily, regardless of glitches akin to a lack of floor communications within the Launch Management Heart that pressured staff to briefly use backups.

Members of the Artemis II crew — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Area Company astronaut Jeremy Hansen — are beginning their roughly two-week quarantine to restrict their publicity to diseases earlier than their flight.

Glaze says she spoke to a number of of the astronauts throughout the current take a look at fueling, as they have been in Florida to watch the preparations. "They're all very, very excited," she says. "They're actually getting quite a lot of anticipation for a possible launch in March."