Space Stuff and Launch Info

[AlexB23]

CNN has an article, but I feel like there should be more coverage of this. Seems like kind of a big deal.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/17/science/nasa-artemis-ii-moon-mission

It is kinda sad that not enough people are interested in space. Yeah, I know things are going off the rails in 2026 (AI stuff and wars) and would rather be in 2013, but this launch will be historic. Man, my TV will be on all day on February 6th to watch the launch. Hopefully, no mishaps. If the launch happened in any other decade like the 2010s or before, the news would be all over the launch for months.

 

[Filip Larsen]

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/...rolls-to-launch-pad-but-key-test-looms-ahead/

Preparations for the first human spaceflight to the Moon in more than 50 years took a big step forward this weekend with the rollout of the Artemis II rocket to its launch pad.

 

[AlexB23]

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/...rolls-to-launch-pad-but-key-test-looms-ahead/

View attachment 369068

Dang, the smaller structures under the launchpad really put into perspective how massive this spacecraft is.

 

[mfb]

Launch window calendar:
February 6, 7, 8, 10, 11
March 6, 7, 8, 9, 11
April 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 30
Each day has a 120 minute launch window during the local night. You want a fixed orientation between launch site and direction of the Moon, which happens every ~25 hours. Artemis II will fly around new Moon, which leads to the monthly pattern. It also means the launch has to happen during the night. The "missing days" are an artifact of the 25 hour pattern (e.g. Feb 8, 11:20 pm -> Feb 10, 0:06 am).

Mission plan
ARB = apogee raise burn, the transition from a low Earth orbit to an eccentric orbit
USS = upper stage separation burn
PRB = perigee raise burn
TLI = trans-lunar injection, that's where they commit to going around the Moon
OTC/RTC = outbound/return trajectory correction maneuvers, small corrections to stay on the planned path.

PAO = public affairs office? Likely video calls with the crew. Here is one "PAO" from 2020.

The timing of the burns considers both orbital mechanics and the sleep schedule of the crew. PRB has to interrupt sleep, the trajectory correction maneuvers are chosen to not do that. Here is a detailed analysis.

Edit: Crew is now in quarantine

 

[Filip Larsen]

Japan lost a 5-ton navigation satellite when it fell off a rocket during launch​

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...h3-rocket-lost-its-cargo-and-just-kept-going/

 

[mfb]

Artemis II wet dress rehearsal shifted to February 2 due to bad weather. That means a launch no earlier than February 8 (ruling out the first 2 of 5 options).

 

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Amazon asks for an extension for its Kuiper/Leo constellation
They have launched 180 since April last year. Unsurprisingly, they won't reach 1600 by July this year. Amazon now wants this deadline to move by 2 years. They also bought 10 more Falcon 9 launches to speed up deployment as their other rockets are less available than planned.

Crew-12 has been moved from Feb 15 to Feb 11 to (slightly) shorten the time with only 3 people on the ISS. Assuming Artemis launches this month, it will become the shortest time between two crewed orbital spaceflights from the US. We might even see both rockets on their launch pads at the same time.

It will also be the first time a crew flies to the Moon and someone else is in space elsewhere. At the time of the Apollo program, all Soviet missions were short and none of them happened at the same time as a flight to the Moon.

 

[mfb]

The countdown to the wet dress rehearsal (WDR) has started, 45 hours to go. Here is the schedule. The core stage will be powered up in ~5.5 hours. Things will get much more eventful in the last 12 hours when tanking begins.

 

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10 hours 30 min
The poll to begin tanking will be in 10 min, if things go well then a small amount of propellant will be used to cool down everything starting in 20 minutes, and serious tanking will start in 1 hour 5 minutes.

NASA
NASA Spaceflight
The Launch Pad

This is only the WDR, but it will do everything short of igniting the engines. It'll be like the real launch except for the last few seconds (and without astronauts on board).

 

[mfb]

SLS is fully loaded, T-27 minutes. That's most of what we'll see externally, besides retracting the crew access arm at T-8 minutes.

At NSF commentators discussed that a successful launch of Artemis 2 will likely delay Crew-12 until the astronauts return, apparently NASA cannot or does not want to deal with two independent spaceflights at the same time.
Edit: There is also this issue with deorbiting an upper stage that SpaceX needs to understand before Crew-12 can fly.

There was a hydrogen leak in between, because there is always a hydrogen leak.

Edit: More holds, including an unplanned one at T-5 minutes. They are still working on some issues.

 

[mfb]

Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal: Test Terminated at T-5:15
A hydrogen leak they couldn't fix. If they can retry the WDR soon then they might still make a February launch window, but if it delays things by more than 3 days then the launch will shift to March.