Administrator Jared Isaacman cites ‘major progress’ since earlier discovery of liquid hydrogen leaking from rocket
Nasa said on Friday it was planning to launch its delayed Artemis II moon mission on 6 March after successfully completing a fueling test that had caused it to stand down earlier this month.
Jared Isaacman, the space agency’s newly confirmed administrator, cited “major progress” since the original so-called wet dress rehearsal in which engineers discovered liquid hydrogen leaking from the space launch system (SLS) rocket on its Florida launchpad at Cape Canaveral.
The mission’s four astronauts, three Americans and one Canadian, were entering a second period of quarantine on Friday in anticipation of the new target launch date, which Nasa announced “with caveats” because it said there was still much preparatory work to do after Thursday’s fueling test.
“I felt like last night was a big step in us earning our right to fly. So, [it] felt really good. Very proud of the team,” the Artemis launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, told a Friday early afternoon press conference.
