ASA’s Artemis II will take astronauts farther into space than ever, past the far side of the Moon, and back to Earth faster than any other human before. But before that can happen, NASA needs to carry out a wet dress rehearsal, counting down a simulated launch right up until T-30 seconds, with nothing going wrong. After a few issues occurring during the first wet rehearsal earlier this month, the agency is targeting today, February 19, for the next one.
The wet rehearsal will start around 8:30 pm EST (1;30 am UTC), and it is expected to last 4 hours. The mission team will fuel up the Space Launch System, Artemis II’s rocket, with 3,180,000 liters ( 700,000 gallons) of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. One of the issues last time was leaks in the liquid hydrogen fueling, just 5 minutes before the fictional launch time.
The Orion spacecraft will also be powered up, its battery charged, and the craft will be sealed just like it will be when astronauts are in there. The Orion spacecraft had a valve (connected to the hatch pressurization) replaced before the last rehearsal, and during the test, it became apparent that it needed retorquing.
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