Humanity is returning to the moon with the first crewed mission since Apollo 17 fifty four years earlier.
Artemis II will see astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Jeremey Hanson travel to lunar orbit to test every component of the lunar expedition’s vehicle and processes in a mission bearing close resemblance to Apollo 10.
FEB 3
16.00 AEST – The wet dress rehearsal has finished with NASA seemingly unsatisifed, the NET (No Earlier Than) launch window is now next month. We’ll stand down this live blog.
06.56 AEST – Fast fill resumes on both liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Engineers will attempt to complete filling and then topping off before entering the replenish phase which is expected to control the concentration level in the umbilical (the location of the main concern.)
06.24 AEST – Resumption of fast fill of the liquid hydrogen, but leaks persisted. Both core stage and upper stage filling has been halted again.
05.11 AEST – Chilling of the liquid oxygen lines has begun, while troubleshooting on the hydrogen continues.
04.42 AEST – Ground crews have stopped filling liquid hydrogen into the core stage after leak concentrations exceeded allowable limits.
FEB 1 – The countdown clock for the wet dress rehearsal, a critical step before the actual launch window can be greenlit, began at 8:13pm local time, or L-48 hours, 40 minutes before the opening of a simulated launch window at 9 pm Monday February 2.
The test is expected to progress for a further four hours beyond that launch window – aprox. 01:00 February 3 local time.
That puts the simulation square in the daytime for Australia.
We’ll have more on this mission as it develops, and live coverage for the key milestones.