Artemis II begins pad preparations at Kennedy for upcoming wet dress rehearsal

NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft arrived at Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 17, and engineers began preparations for an upcoming wet dress rehearsal, a fueling test of the rocket set to occur before launch. Technicians hooked up purge lines to maintain conditions inside rocket and spacecraft cavities, enabled communications with the Launch Control Center, and performed swing tests of the crew access arm.

The emergency egress slide‑wire and basket system was connected so teams could practice releasing the baskets. Orion and elements of the rocket, including the core stage, interim cryogenic propulsion stage, and boosters, have been powered on, and teams are conducting multi‑day radio frequency communications tests with the Eastern Range.

Technicians are scheduled to begin servicing the SLS twin solid rocket boosters with hydrazine over the weekend and will load several final items into Orion, including tablets for the crew, medical kits, and scientific payloads such as the AVATAR investigation. During the wet dress rehearsal, teams will demonstrate loading more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants, run a launch countdown, and practice safely removing propellant without astronauts onsite.

If needed, engineers can rollback SLS and Orion to the Vehicle Assembly Building for additional work. While the Artemis II launch window opens as early as Friday, Feb.

Key Topics

Science, Artemis Ii, Sls, Orion Spacecraft, Kennedy Space Center, Avatar Investigation