NASA started another practice launch countdown Tuesday for the Artemis II moonshot, sending engineers back to test fueling steps after repairs were made to fix dangerous liquid hydrogen fuel leaks. The effort comes after an earlier fueling test was halted when similar leaks surfaced, pushing the mission’s timeline into March.
At Kennedy Space Center, launch teams replaced a pair of seals and a clogged filter at the pad where the Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket stands. After those changes, teams began clocking down as part of a two-day practice test designed to replicate key steps leading up to a launch.
The countdown is scheduled to culminate Thursday with an attempted fill-up of the rocket’s fuel tanks. NASA said a successful, leak-free fueling test is needed before it can set a launch date.
NASA’s four Artemis II astronauts will monitor the dress rehearsal from afar while ground teams run the test. If the fueling test proceeds as planned, the next step for the program will be assessing the results in detail before committing to a launch window.
NASA officials said the earliest the SLS rocket could blast off is March 6. They had considered moving the timeline up by three days, but said additional time was required to analyze fueling test results after the issues found earlier in the program.
The last time astronauts launched for the moon was in 1972 during NASA’s Apollo program, a milestone NASA is aiming to revisit with Artemis II.