Artemis II moves another big step closer

Back on October 1st, news broke about the Artemis II mission being pulled in earlier in time, as the new administration has been trying to speed up progress on the Artemis program to return to the moon. Within the few weeks before that post, there was a flareup of hype about the Artemis II mission.  Part of this is from the emphasis on the moon that has come with President Trump, Sean Duffy as NASA administrator and other changes, but it resulted in solid changes to the Schedule.  

Practically, the schedule movement was about one month (as best as I can recall) not several months.  The current launch time is No Earlier Than Feb. 5, 2026 at 8:09 PM.  Today, news about the next major milestone in preparation appeared in Ars Technica: the Orion spacecraft that will be home to the crew for the duration of the mission was transported across the Kennedy Space Center to be mounted to the SLS launch vehicle in the Vehicle Assembly Building. 

NASA's Orion spacecraft rolls toward the Vehicle Assembly Building on Thursday night at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Credit: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now

Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen will be the first humans to fly on the Orion spacecraft, a vehicle that has been in development for nearly two decades. The Artemis II crew will make history on their 10-day flight by becoming the first people to travel to the vicinity of the Moon since 1972.

Orion was delivered to the KSC back in May of this year and has been bouncing around between different buildings getting worked on, tested to ensure the additions work properly, then moving to the next stage of assembly.  Now that it's in the VAB where the rest of the SLS is being worked on, it's getting to be time to lift it onto the SLS.  In the coming days, cranes will lift the spacecraft, weighing 78,000 pounds (35 metric tons), dozens of stories above the VAB’s center aisle, then up and over the transom into the building’s northeast high bay to be lowered atop the SLS heavy-lift rocket.  

Then comes the step with the daily Fun Fact to it. There are 360 bolts to tighten to specification to connect the Orion spacecraft to the Space Launch System. That makes me say "one every degree of circumference?  How many inches between bolts?  How big are the bolts?" Don't you even think about doing a disappearing 10mm socket joke.   

After all of that is tested and verified, it's time for the biggest test of the system:

One of the most critical activities planned in the VAB is a countdown rehearsal with the four-person Artemis II crew. The astronauts will take their seats inside the Orion spacecraft and practice their launch-day procedures, which include configuring the craft’s cockpit for flight. The rocket won’t be fueled for this event. 

If you've followed launches like this closely, you know there will be many more tests than this. It's what they do.  

Artemis II flight plan. Credit: NASA