Overview
- Liftoff is targeted for 6:24 p.m. EDT on April 1 in a two-hour window, with forecasters calling conditions about 80% favorable and backup opportunities through April 6.
- NASA will stream prelaunch and launch coverage on NASA+, YouTube and other partners, and viewers can track Orion’s position in near real time online.
- Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will fly a roughly 10-day lunar free-return that ends with a Pacific splashdown.
- The flight plan calls for two Earth orbits, a translunar injection burn, a pass behind the Moon and a high-speed reentry that will test Orion’s heat shield at about 25,000 mph.
- Mission managers report repairs from February’s hydrogen leak and blocked helium lines are complete, and this crewed test of life support, navigation and communications is the next step toward sustained lunar operations.