NASA counted down to T-minus 29 seconds during a smooth rehearsal for a historic launch that could send astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than half a century.
The run-through at Launch Complex 39B, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was known as a wet dress rehearsal because it involved filling up the propellant tanks on NASA’s Space Launch System, a 322-foot-tall rocket that made its debut with 2022’s uncrewed Artemis 1 mission.
The only major component that was missing at the launch pad was the crew. NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, the commander for the Artemis 2 mission, said in a posting to X that he was watching the proceedings from Launch Control.
Once NASA reviews the results of the two-day rehearsal, mission managers will decide whether to give the final go-ahead for the Artemis 2 crew’s 10-day trip around the moon and back.
Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said the space agency is targeting March 6 for liftoff. “Every night I look at the moon, and I see it, and I get real excited because I can really feel she’s calling us,” she told reporters today. “And we’re ready.”
