Bracing for a weekend chilly snap in Florida, NASA delayed a costume rehearsal fueling check for its Artemis II moon rocket, shifting it from Saturday to Monday, and pushed the long-awaited launch again at the very least two days to no sooner than 11:20 p.m. EST on Feb. 8.
On the similar time, NASA is gearing as much as launch a contemporary crew to the Worldwide Area Station to switch the 4 Crew 11 fliers who lower their mission brief and returned to Earth on Jan. 15 as a result of a medical problem with an unidentified crew member.
Crew 12, launching atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, can be able to blast off as early as Feb. 11. But when the Artemis II mission will get off on Feb. 8 as NASA hopes, Crew 12 commander Jessica Meir, pilot Jack Hathaway, European Area Company astronaut Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Andrey Fedaev will stand down till after the Artemis II crew returns to Earth. They’d launch round Feb. 19.
SpaceX 
If Artemis II runs into main issues and slips to the subsequent launch interval in March, Crew 12 might launch earlier, on the first obtainable alternative, relying on when the moon mission was referred to as off. There are a selection of different Artemis II-related eventualities that would play a job in Crew 12’s eventual launch date.
The long-awaited Artemis II mission will use NASA’s enormous Area Launch System rocket to spice up three NASA astronauts and a Canadian crewmate on a visit across the moon and again, the primary such flight for the reason that last Apollo mission 54 years in the past. The upcoming mission will set the stage for one more crew to try a touchdown close to the moon’s south pole in 2028.
NASA/Frank Michaux 
The Artemis II launch had been focused for subsequent Friday, assuming a leak-free fueling check Saturday. However with the check delay, and the time wanted for NASA to research the outcomes, the company opted to surrender launch alternatives on Feb. 6 and seven. If the rocket just isn’t off the bottom by Feb. 11, the flight will slip to early March.
The “moist costume” rehearsal countdown now will begin at 8 p.m. EST Saturday. Fueling will start round 11 a.m. Monday, resulting in the opening of a simulated launch window at 9 p.m. that night time.
Engineers plan to load the Area Launch System rocket with greater than 750,000 gallons of supercold methane and liquid oxygen to work by means of loading procedures and to verify the rocket’s tanks, valves, propellant plumbing and umbilicals hooked up to the facet of the booster are leak-free and good to go.
Jim Ross/NASA by way of AP 
Fueling for launch usually takes about 9 hours, however Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and her group plan to work by means of a wide range of recycle choices to rehearse procedures for coping with surprising issues.
The Artemis II SLS can be making the rocket program’s second flight. Earlier than its unpiloted maiden flight in 2022, a number of fueling assessments have been required to handle a wide range of propellant leaks and different points. The Artemis II rocket options upgrades and enhancements to get rid of these points. However engineers will not know for positive till Monday’s check.
