NASA has postponed the launch of its Artemis II mission, which was scheduled for March, due to leaks in the fuel tanks and valves used for the Orion crew capsule's pressurization system. The SLS rocket has been returned to the shed and after more than a month of delays, NASA has now announced that the Artemis II launch is scheduled for April 1. The SLS rocket is scheduled to return to launch on March 19.
The crew consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Artemis II will take 10 days, making it the farthest journey from Earth ever made by humans. The mission will see if the Orion capsule can safely carry a crew around the moon. It will also carry historic artifacts such as part of the wing canvas of the first airplane, the Wright Flyer 1.
SpaceX's delays in developing the Spaceship have meant that Artemis III will not launch until 2027. Frustrated by SpaceX's failure, NASA has opened tenders for a secondary lunar landing system from a consortium of Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper.
This also forced NASA to postpone the return mission to the moon via Artemis IV instead of Artemis III. Artemis III will be a mission to test the lunar landing system and life support in low Earth orbit first.
