Hard Road to the Moon... NASA Crewed Flight Artemis II Likely to Be Delayed

The launch of the spacecraft Artemis II, which will send humans back into lunar orbit for the first time in half a century since the Apollo program, appears likely to be delayed.

On the 21st (local time), NASA Administrator Gerard Isakowitz stated on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), "According to the data compiled overnight, we have confirmed a blockage in the helium flow in the interim cryogenic propulsion stage of the Space Launch System," adding, "The team is working to resolve the issue and is preparing for the possibility of rolling the spacecraft back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)." He went on to say, "This will almost certainly affect the March launch window," strongly suggesting the possibility of a postponement.

On the 6th (local time), the Artemis II lunar exploration rocket was installed on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. UPI Yonhap News Agency

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On the previous day, the 20th, NASA announced that it had successfully completed a wet dress rehearsal for Artemis II, a simulation in which fuel is loaded and the countdown phase is practiced, and said that the spacecraft could be launched as early as March 6. However, it reversed this within a day. NASA had initially planned to launch Artemis II in February, but on the 3rd it discovered a fuel leak during the wet dress rehearsal process and postponed the schedule.

The Artemis program is a core mission that NASA is pursuing to send a crewed spacecraft to the Moon again for the first time in 54 years since Apollo 17 in 1972. In 2022, it successfully carried out the Artemis I mission, launching the uncrewed Orion spacecraft carrying a mannequin, and is now preparing for the next phase, the launch of the crewed spacecraft Artemis II. Three Americans and one Canadian will board this spacecraft, and they are scheduled to carry out a roughly 10-day mission in which they orbit the Moon and then return.

The Artemis program schedule has been repeatedly delayed due to unforeseen problems. NASA had originally planned a crewed lunar orbital flight in 2024 and the first-ever lunar landing by a woman in 2025, but postponed these to 2026 and 2027-2028, respectively. If the current mission to test the performance and safety of the rocket and spacecraft succeeds, NASA plans to move directly to the Artemis III mission and land astronauts on the lunar surface.

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