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Bracing for a play acold drawback successful Florida, NASA delayed a formal rehearsal fueling trial for its Artemis II satellite rocket, moving it from Saturday to Monday, and pushed the long-awaited motorboat backmost astatine slightest 2 days to nary earlier than 11:20 p.m. EST connected Feb. 8.
At the aforesaid time, NASA is gearing up to motorboat a caller unit to the International Space Station to regenerate the 4 Crew 11 fliers who cut their ngo short and returned to Earth connected Jan. 15 owed to a aesculapian contented with an unidentified unit member.
Crew 12, launching atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, volition beryllium acceptable to blast disconnected arsenic aboriginal arsenic Feb. 11. But if the Artemis II ngo gets disconnected connected Feb. 8 arsenic NASA hopes, Crew 12 commandant Jessica Meir, aviator Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Andrey Fedaev volition basal down until aft the Artemis II unit returns to Earth. They would motorboat astir Feb. 19.
NASA plans to motorboat Crew 12 to the International Space Station arsenic soon arsenic imaginable to regenerate 4 unit members who came location earlier this period due to the fact that of a aesculapian issue. From left: cosmonaut Andrey Fedaev, aviator Jack Hathaway, commandant Jessica Meir and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot.
SpaceX
If Artemis II runs into large problems and slips to the adjacent motorboat play successful March, Crew 12 could motorboat earlier, astatine the archetypal disposable opportunity, depending connected erstwhile the satellite ngo was called off. There are a assortment of different Artemis II-related scenarios that could play a relation successful Crew 12's eventual motorboat date.
The long-awaited Artemis II mission volition usage NASA's immense Space Launch System rocket to boost three NASA astronauts and a Canadian crewmate connected a travel astir the satellite and back, the archetypal specified formation since the last Apollo ngo 54 years ago. The upcoming ngo volition acceptable the signifier for different unit to effort a landing adjacent the moon's southbound rod successful 2028.
The Artemis II crew, from left: Commander Reid Wiseman, aviator Victor Glover, astronaut Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. If each goes well, the unit volition blast disconnected atop NASA's 2nd Space Launch System rocket connected Feb. 8, 2026, for a nine-day formation astir the satellite and back.
NASA/Frank Michaux
The Artemis II motorboat had been targeted for adjacent Friday, assuming a leak-free fueling trial Saturday. But with the trial delay, and the clip needed for NASA to analyse the results, the bureau opted to springiness up motorboat opportunities connected Feb. 6 and 7. If the rocket is not disconnected the crushed by Feb. 11, the formation volition gaffe to aboriginal March.
The "wet dress" rehearsal countdown present volition commencement astatine 8 p.m. EST Saturday. Fueling volition statesman astir 11 a.m. Monday, starring to the opening of a simulated motorboat model astatine 9 p.m. that night.
Engineers program to load the Space Launch System rocket with much than 750,000 gallons of supercold methane and liquid oxygen to enactment done loading procedures and to marque definite the rocket's tanks, valves, propellant plumbing and umbilicals attached to the broadside of the booster are leak-free and bully to go.
This photograph provided by NASA shows the Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop a mobile launcher astatine Launch Complex 39B, Jan. 29, 2026, astatine NASA's Kennedy Space Center successful Florida.
Jim Ross/NASA via AP
Fueling for motorboat usually takes astir 9 hours, but Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and her squad program to enactment done a assortment of recycle options to rehearse procedures for dealing with unexpected problems.
The Artemis II SLS volition beryllium making the rocket program's 2nd flight. Before its unpiloted maiden formation successful 2022, aggregate fueling tests were required to code a assortment of propellant leaks and different issues. The Artemis II rocket features upgrades and improvements to destruct those issues. But engineers won't cognize for definite until Monday's test.
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