WASHINGTON — The four Artemis 2 astronauts arrived in Florida March 27 for final preparations ahead of a launch still scheduled as soon as April 1.
The four Artemis 2 astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — flew from Ellington Field in Houston to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on NASA T-38 jets. They were accompanied by the two backups for the mission, Andre Douglas and Jenni Gibbons.
The astronauts arrived five days before the earliest launch opportunity for Artemis 2, a two-hour window that opens at 6:24 p.m. Eastern. There are additional two-hour windows daily through April 6.
NASA has provided limited updates on progress toward launch since the mobile platform carrying the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft returned to Launch Complex 39B March 20, following repairs in the Vehicle Assembly Building to restore the flow of helium into the upper stage.
A top NASA official said in a recent interview that launch preparations have been going smoothly. “I am not tracking any big issues, not even any small issues, that are in our way for next week,” said Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for exploration systems development, on the sidelines of NASA’s Ignition event March 24. “Right now, things are moving very well and on schedule, even a little ahead.”
She said at that time that the agency was just starting to look at weather forecasts for the first launch attempt. A March 27 forecast issued by the Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron showed a 10% chance of precipitation on April 1, with partly cloudy conditions and light winds.
The Artemis 2 astronauts, in medical quarantine since March 18, said in comments after arrival at KSC that they felt ready to launch but acknowledged everything might not go well on the first attempt.
“We’re ready to launch, but we’re also humans trying to load millions of pounds of propellant onto a giant machine and send it to the moon,” said Wiseman, the mission commander, noting the first launch attempt will be the first time the crew have gotten in Orion atop a fully fueled SLS on the pad.
“It could very well be we get on April 1st and we’re behind timeline and we’re just not ready as a team,” he said, resulting in a scrub of one or two days.
“If we get off on the 3rd, great. If we get off on the 6th, great. If we’ve got an issue and we’ve got to come back in May or June or whenever the team and the vehicle are ready, we are ready for that,” he said.
Wiseman said the astronauts did not see anything surprising during a flight readiness review earlier this month that approved plans for an April 1 launch.
“For us, the thing that caught the attention of most was that everything that was briefed we expected,” he said. “There was not a single surprise in that entire flight readiness review.”
The astronauts have also completed mission simulations. “What we just did in front of you was the last simulation,” Glover, the mission pilot, said, referring to the flight of T-38 jets to KSC. The crew recently performed a day of ascent and entry simulations in Houston, working with the flight controllers on those phases of flight.
“The delays that we’ve had since we went into quarantine the first time in January have opened up opportunities to just really imprint some of the learning that we had already done,” he said. “We’ve made the most of this time.”
The launch preparations have coincided with changes to later aspects of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration campaign. NASA announced Feb. 27 that Artemis 3 would now become a mission in Earth orbit in mid-2027 to test rendezvous and docking operations between Orion and lunar landers, followed in 2028 by landing attempts on Artemis 4 and 5. NASA revealed March 24 its intent to effectively cancel the lunar Gateway and instead work on a lunar base.
“We have talked a lot about the exciting changes that have been announced,” said Koch, a mission specialist on Artemis 2. “It has been motivating, it has been inspiring and it has fired us up.”
She said the crew has made additional reviews of its training to see how to prepare the next Artemis crew, yet to be announced by the agency.
Koch is slated to be the first woman to travel beyond low Earth orbit, while Hansen, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut who is the other mission specialist, will be the first non-American to do so.
“I feel a lot of things, to be sure. I feel a great sense of pride for Canada,” Hansen said. “It is time to continue to evolve our vision as Canadians. What can we continue to do, what can we do next.”
“The point’s not being the first,” he added, “it’s making sure you’re not the last.”