Axiom-1 Keeps Green Light for Friday, Artemis Test Will Wait

Axiom-1, the first U.S.-sponsored private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, remains on track for launch this Friday. NASA agreed to give way before resuming the Wet Dress Rehearsal test for the Artemis I mission. Using adjacent launch pads at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the launch and the test cannot take place the same day. Axiom-1 has been postponed twice so NASA could conduct the test, but after two scrubs the agency is stepping aside.

The conflict between the Axiom-1 launch and the Artemis I test only became apparent in recent weeks as the respective dates were adjusted for a variety of reasons and both ended up on the calendar for April 3.

Axiom-1 will send four private astronauts to the ISS on a SpaceX Crew Dragon that lifts off from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A, which SpaceX leases from NASA.

NASA’s Artemis I Wet Dress Rehearsal, or WDR, test is on Launch Complex 39-B next door.

NASA decided to proceed with the WDR on April 3, pushing the Ax-1 launch to April 6. The test was scrubbed after several hours, however, and NASA wanted to try again on April 4, but that was the day SpaceX needed to do a static fire test in preparation for the April 6 launch.

Once again, SpaceX and its customer, Axiom Space, had to postpone the Ax-1 launch, this time to Friday, April 8.

NASA resumed the WDR yesterday, but had to scrub again when additional problems emerged. The problems themselves are not surprising. The WDR is the first test of NASA’s new Saturn V-class Space Launch System, which is designed to send astronauts to the Moon, Mars and beyond. What is making headlines is less about the test and more about the jam-packed schedule for NASA’s two launch pads and the ISS. As soon as Ax-1 returns, NASA needs to launch its next set of astronauts there on the Crew-4 mission, another schedule complication.

Jim Free, NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development, told attendees at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, CO today that NASA will wait to resume the WDR until after Ax-1 launches. At a media teleconference later in the day, other NASA officials said a new date has not been determined yet, but it will be no earlier than Saturday.

That certainly is good news for the Ax-1 crew who already are in quarantine waiting to launch. Commander Michael López-Alegria is a former NASA astronaut with four spaceflights under his belt already. He left NASA a decade ago and later joined Axiom Space, which was co-founded by former NASA ISS program manager Mike Suffredini. Axiom not only arranges private astronaut flights to the ISS, but is building a commercial space station to replace it later in this decade.

Joining López-Alegria (U.S./Spain) on the flight are three wealthy entrepreneurs who are paying for the trip: Larry Connor (U.S.), Mark Pathy (Canada), and Eytan Stibbe (Israel). They will spend 10 days in space, eight of them on the ISS conducting a variety of experiments and seeing the sights.

As for the WDR, Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson told reporters today that a lot of progress was made even though they could not complete “tanking” — loading the SLS core stage and upper stage with Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Liquid Hydrogen (LH2). She said the test has two primary objectives and five secondary objectives. One primary objective and three of the secondary objectives have been met.

Artemis Mission Manager Mike Sarafin emphasized that no fundamental design flaws have been uncovered. Many subscale tests have taken place already, but when the full system is integrated together on the Mobile Launcher at the launch pad, it’s different. “There’s a lot of learning going on and we are a learning organization and we take pride in learning from these tests,” he said.

When the test resumes, they do not have to go back to square one, but it still will take about 36 hours, Blackwell-Thompson added.