A small Artemis II story - next WDR is on NOW

Because I really can't find anything new to write about.

NASA to fuel up for a full Wet Dress Rehearsal until Friday, Feb. 20

The headline is basically the story.  We all knew it was going to happen just not the official date. 

The agency plans to load more than 700,000 gallons (2.65 million liters) of liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) into Artemis 2's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Thursday (Feb. 19), wrapping up a crucial two-day-long test called a wet dress rehearsal.

This will be the second wet dress for Artemis 2, the first crewed moon mission since the Apollo era. The first rehearsal, which began on Jan. 31, ended prematurely due to an LH2 leak detected during propellant loading.

There was an attempt to repeat the test last week (Feb. 12) that didn't actually pass, but enough indications of improvement were present to make the team think they made progress. 

Artemis 2 teams replaced two seals in the aftermath of the first wet dress. Then, on Feb. 12, they partially filled SLS' tanks with LH2 in a "confidence test" designed to assess the efficacy of that fix. A problem with ground support equipment restricted the flow of LH2 during that test, but the team nonetheless was "able to gain confidence in several key objectives."

Artemis 2 team members soon tied the ground-support issue to a filter, which they replaced over this past weekend. They now feel ready to conduct another wet dress rehearsal, which will run through the key operations leading up to launch.

The test countdown clock officially started this evening, Feb. 17 at 6:50 p.m. EST (2350 UTC) and is scheduled to run until approximately 12:30 a.m., Friday, Feb. 20 (2530 UTC).  

The full Moon is seen behind the Space Launch System rocket at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Yeah, I ran this picture the other day, but it's pretty. NASA/Ben Smegelsky