Artemis II rocket to roll back out to the pad. Engineers are targeting 8 pm EDT on Thursday, March 19, to start rolling the Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the US space agency said. NASA’s crawler-transporter 2 will carry the 11-million-pound stack, including the mobile launcher, at about 1 mph along the four-mile route from Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad. The journey can take up to 12 hours.
Astronauts enter quarantine again … Meanwhile, the Artemis II crew entered quarantine at 5 pm CDT Wednesday in Houston to ensure they stay healthy leading up to launch. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen will limit their exposure to others for the next week in Houston before flying to Kennedy approximately five days before launch. Both activities are key milestones on the way to a launch as early as Wednesday, April 1.
Booster 19 completes initial test campaign. The Super Heavy first stage that will be used for the 12th Starship flight test, Booster 19, completed an initial test campaign on the newly commissioned Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas, NASASpaceflight.com reports. Culminating in a short static firing of the rocket, the series of tests was a first for Pad 2, the new Block 3/V3 Super Heavy Booster, and for the upgraded Raptor 3 outside of single engine testing.
New and improved (?) rocket and pad … As the inaugural vehicle to undergo operations on this pad, Booster 19’s campaign served as both a booster qualification test and a commissioning milestone for the expanded launch infrastructure. Pad 2 features significant upgrades over Pad 1, most notably dual booster quick disconnects: one dedicated to liquid methane and another to liquid oxygen. This separation enables independent tank pressurization and more efficient loading, reducing risks associated with mixed propellants. After the static firing, SpaceX said the rocket performed well. Flight 12 is likely to occur no earlier than the second half of April.
Next three launches
March 20: Electron | Eight Days a Week | Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand | 16:10 UTC
March 20: Falcon 9 | Starlink 17-15 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. | 21:48 UTC
March 22: Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS-33 | Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan | 11:59 UTC
