NASA to conduct dress rehearsal for Artemis 2 mission to the Moon
2 February 07:15
A dress rehearsal for the launch of the American manned mission Artemis II to the Moon on the Orion spacecraft will take place at the Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida. It will be held on February 2, according to "Komersant Ukrainian", citing NASA.
According to the US space agency, the plan is to fuel the SLS (Space Launch System) launch vehicle, which is already installed on the launch pad, with cryogenic fuel, check the operation of all rocket and spacecraft systems and ground infrastructure, practice pre-launch procedures, and then drain the fuel. There will be no mission crew on board Orion.
When Donald Trump’s administration launched the Artemis program in 2019, the moon landing was planned for 2024: just at the end of his planned second presidential term. However, Trump was unable to win a second term, and the American space industry was not as strong as it had been in the 1960s. As a result, the first manned lunar flight of the 21st century under the Artemis 2 program will not take place until the first months of 2026.
