Overview
- NASA managers said Sunday the SLS rocket and Orion are ready for a Wednesday 6:24 p.m. ET liftoff, with the formal 49-hour countdown starting Monday.
- Forecasts call for about 80% favorable conditions, with launch rules focused on thick cloud layers and strong winds that can trigger lightning and force a scrub.
- The four-person crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — remains in medical quarantine after a weekend Q&A at Kennedy Space Center.
- The roughly 10-day flight will not land on the Moon, instead looping around the far side on a free-return path to test life support, propulsion, navigation and communications before splashdown.
- If the mission launches at the opening of the window, NASA projects the crew will travel farther from Earth than Apollo 13 and finish with a Pacific recovery near San Diego supported by the U.S. Navy.