Overview
- NASA completed its flight-readiness review and is working toward an initial launch window opening April 1–2 with additional opportunities through April 6.
- The SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft are slated to roll back to Launch Complex 39B around March 19 following fixes to a helium pressurization fault and a replaced seal, with flight‑termination system batteries serviced.
- The roughly 10‑day mission will send Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a lunar flyby without a landing, with crew quarantine beginning March 18.
- A March 10 report from the NASA Office of Inspector General states the agency cannot currently rescue astronauts stranded in space or on the lunar surface and faults existing crew‑survival analyses.
- The watchdog identifies the Human Landing System as the highest crew‑risk area, citing unresolved manual‑control decisions for Blue Origin and an active dispute with SpaceX, raising questions for later landing missions targeted around 2028.