In what sounds like the ultimate April Fool’s Day prank, NASA claims it is ready to launch its Artemis II moon mission on April 1 after months of delays.
The mission, which will bring humans back to the moon for the first time in over 50 years, had originally been scheduled to blast off in early February.
However, hydrogen leaks and helium blockages forced NASA to roll the rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building in Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, for repairs.
With those problems now fixed, the space agency plans to roll the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket back to the launch pad on March 19, with its sights set on an early April launch.
Importantly, NASA says that it will not attempt another wet dress rehearsal – a simulated launch in which the fuel tanks are filled with propellant – before the launch.
While the rocket aced its second wet dress rehearsal in March, the first rehearsal in February was aborted after engineers found a major leak of super–cooled hydrogen.
Speaking at a press conference, Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said: ‘The next time we tank the vehicle will be when we’re attempting to launch.
‘I am comfortable and the agency is comfortable with targeting April 1 as our first opportunity, just keep in mind we still have work to go.’
NASA claims that its long–awaited Artemis II moon mission will finally launch on April 1, following months of delays
The Artemis II mission will not land on the moon, but rather send its crew – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen – on a looping ‘rendezvous’ with the moon.
The SLS rocket will launch into Earth orbit before detaching and sending the Orion crew capsule on a trip around the far side of the moon – returning 10 days later for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Exactly how close to the moon the crew get during their lunar flyby will depend on the day the mission finally launches, with distances ranging from 4,000 to 6,000 miles (6,437 to 9,656 km).
At that distance, the moon should appear as large as a basketball held out at arm’s length.
In a post on X, NASA confirmed that it is now targeting a six–day window at the start of April, with launch opportunities every day from April 1 to April 6.
However, Ms Glaze says that the agency will realistically have about four good opportunities to launch within that window.
Should another round of delays strike the much–stalled mission, NASA is still holding open April 30 as another potential launch window.
Space fans have flocked to social media to poke fun at NASA’s choice of launch date for its problem–plagued mission.
In a post on X, NASA confirmed the new launch window would include the first six days of April and April 30. However, the agency says they will probably only have four good chances to launch in this time
‘They are going to say April Fools if they have to push the launch,’ one commenter joked
Another chimed in: ‘Don’t launch it on April Fool’s Day man lol.’
Meanwhile, one space enthusiast commented that the date was ‘a conspiracy theorist’s dream’.
While NASA leaders stressed that there was still work to be done before an April launch, the agency is now under increasing pressure to get Artemis II underway.
Artemis II has already been delayed for two years after problems were found in Orion’s heat shield – which protects the crew from the forces of re–entry – during the uncrewed Artemis I mission.
In December 2024, NASA set a hard deadline of launching Artemis II by the end of April 2026.
At the same time, the new NASA Administrator, Jarred Isaacman, is pushing to increase launch frequency, following the model of the earlier Apollo moon missions.
But NASA also says that launching Artemis II in April will not be without risk.
John Honeycutt, chair of the Artemis II Mission Management Team, said: ‘We want to be sure that we’re thinking about everything that can possibly go wrong, and that we have assessed and adjudicated all the risks to put us in the best posture to be successful.
‘If you look at the data over time, over the lifespan of building new rockets, the data would show you that one out of two is successful. You’re only successful 50 per cent of the time. I think we’re in a much better position than that.
‘We do an outstanding job of understanding the risk, buying down the risk, mitigating the risk, and putting together controls to manage the risk.’
This comes after NASA has spent months grappling with technical issues that have kept Artemis II grounded.
After NASA fixed the hydrogen leaks that aborted the first wet dress rehearsal, the launch was scrubbed once again after engineers found a disruption to the flow of helium in the rocket’s upper stage.
Inert, inflammable helium is used to maintain certain environmental systems and pressurise the SLS fuel tanks.
After rolling back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs, engineers found that the blockage was due to a quick–disconnect (QD) seal on SLS’ upper stage – which connects the rocket to the launch tower.
This was the exact same system that caused the hydrogen leaks during the first wet dress rehearsal.
The Artemis II mission will not land on the moon, but rather send its crew – Christina Koch (left), Reid Wiseman (front centre), Victor Glover (back centre), and Jeremy Hansen (right) – on a looping ‘rendezvous’ with the moon
NASA maintains that these issues have now been fixed and the rocket is finally ready to launch next month.
Ms Glaze said: ‘There are still things that need to be done within the Vehicle Assembly Building and out at the pad.
‘As always, we’ll always be guided by what the hardware is telling us, and we will launch when we’re ready.
‘At this point, we’re very focused on April.’
