NASA Retargets Artemis II Rollout For March 19 – Aviation Week

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A day after postponing the return of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft to Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B (LC-39B) for a second attempt to launch the Artemis II flight test, NASA rescheduled rollout back to March 19.
Work to replace an electrical harness for the SLS core stage flight termination system was running ahead of schedule, allowing NASA to return to its previously planned March 19 rollout date, the agency said March 18.
The 4-mi. trek from the Vehicle Assembly Building to LC-38B was expected to begin at 8 p.m. and could take up to 12 hr. NASA said a rollout on either March 19 or March 20 would preserve the possibility of launching as early as April 1.  However, “teams continue to keep an eye on the weather forecasts,” NASA noted in a mission status update.
NASA has two launch periods for the Artemis II mission in April, the first of which opens April 1 and lasts for six days. The second launch period opens April 30 and the agency has declined to release when that window closes.
Artemis II is a 10-day crewed flight test of the Orion spacecraft and will mark the first human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit since the final Apollo Moon mission in 1972.
Irene Klotz is Senior Space Editor for Aviation Week, based in Cape Canaveral. Before joining Aviation Week in 2017, Irene spent 25 years as a wire service reporter covering human and robotic spaceflight, commercial space, astronomy, science and technology for Reuters and United Press International.
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