NASA began its latest rehearsal for Artemis on Saturday, launching a two-day practice countdown aimed at preparing for the fueling of a new moon rocket. The countdown is the precursor step NASA needs before it can fuel the Space Launch System for a lunar flyby and ultimately move toward a crew launch, the Associated Press reported.
Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew are the first astronauts to launch to the moon since 1972, and NASA has them in quarantine as they monitor the dress rehearsal from their base in Houston. After the rocket is cleared for flight, the crew will then travel to Kennedy Space Center for the next phase of launch preparations.
The Space Launch System rocket, described by NASA as 322 feet tall, moved to the pad two weeks earlier. Teams are scheduled to fill the rocket’s tank with more than 700,000 gallons of super-cold fuel as part of the practice sequence, with the test stopping about a half-minute short of when the engines would light.
NASA’s schedule has also been affected by weather. A bitter cold spell delayed the fueling demonstration and pushed the launch by two days, which the AP said now makes Feb. 8 the earliest date the rocket could blast off.
Riding on top of the rocket will be the Orion capsule carrying the U.S. and Canadian astronauts, who will fly around the moon and then return directly to Earth without stopping before splashdown in the Pacific. The mission is expected to last nearly 10 days, according to the AP account, and it follows NASA’s prior moon missions during the Apollo program from 1968 to 1972, when 24 astronauts went to the moon and 12 walked on the surface.