The countdown for the Artemis II wet dress rehearsal is underway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The countdown clock began at 6:50 p.m. EST Tuesday, or L-49 hours, 40 minutes before the opening of a simulated launch window at 8:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 19. The test is expected to go until approximately 12:30 a.m., Friday, Feb. 20.
The test will run the launch team, as well as supporting teams in the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and other supporting NASA centers, through a full range of operations, including loading cryogenic liquid propellant into the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s tanks, conducting a launch countdown, demonstrating the ability to recycle the countdown clock, and draining the tanks to practice scrub procedures. These steps ensure the team is fully prepared for launch day.
In parallel, teams are preparing to install temporary platforms onto the mobile launcher after a successful wet dress rehearsal and are staging associated equipment near the launch pad. The platforms will allow technicians to service flight termination system elements in the upper left and right segments of the solid rocket boosters and core stage intertank for required testing of the system to meet Eastern Range safety requirements ahea …