NASA continues to work toward February launch of Artemis 2

PHOENIX — NASA says it is continuing to prepare for a possible Artemis 2 launch as soon as February, but with remarkably little publicity by the agency for the first crewed flight to the moon in more than 50 years.

In a presentation Jan. 6 at a meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for exploration systems development, said the agency is targeting a launch window that opens in early February, assuming no major issues arise in the coming weeks.

“Right now, we could still make the February launch. We’ve got to have a lot of things go smoothly and go well,” she said. “But it’s still feasible.”

That launch window opens Feb. 6. NASA has not released detailed information about the window, but agency officials said at a September briefing that launch opportunities would last four to eight days each month. If the mission does not launch in February, backup windows are available in March and April.

Several key milestones remain before launch, including rollout of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to Launch Complex 39B. Rollout is scheduled for mid-January, although NASA has not provided a specific date.

“We’ve been saying mid-January for a long time, and we’re holding to that,” Glaze said. In a Jan. 2 social media post, NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens said rollout would occur in less than two weeks.

Once at the pad, teams will conduct prelaunch activities including a wet dress rehearsal, in which the SLS is loaded with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants and the mission team conducts a practice countdown.

During preparations for Artemis 1, NASA encountered repeated difficulties with the wet dress rehearsal, conducting several attempts over three months because of technical problems, including hydrogen leaks. Even after declaring the rehearsal successful, fueling issues scrubbed two launch attempts.

Recent milestones for Artemis 2 include a countdown demonstration test conducted inside the VAB on Dec. 20. During that test, the four Artemis 2 astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — completed prelaunch procedures, boarded Orion and participated in a countdown that concluded at T-minus 30 seconds.

In a Dec. 23 statement, NASA said teams dealt with several issues during the test. “As they may encounter on launch day, teams navigated through several real-time issues, including audio communications and environmental control and life support systems closeout activities during the test,” the agency said, without providing additional details.

“We learned a lot,” Glaze said. “We still are working on and resolving some of those actions coming out of there, but it was an incredibly successful test.”

Her comments provided a rare official update about preparations for Artemis 2 with the launch as soon as a month away. NASA has not held a mission briefing since late September, and senior agency officials have said little publicly about the mission in recent months.

Part of that silence was due to the six-week government shutdown from early October to mid-November. However, even after the shutdown ended, NASA has provided limited updates on launch readiness despite the historic significance of Artemis 2, the first crewed mission to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who has emphasized transparency, said additional information would be released after rollout. “Artemis II is the first step in America’s grand return to the Moon, and we will be very transparent about technical readiness and timelines after rollout,” he wrote in a Jan. 4 social media post.

Asked why NASA is waiting until rollout to provide more detail, Isaacman said, “Because I want more data to ensure we set proper expectations.”