The NASA Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program is continuing to review the experiences from the Artemis I launch campaign as teams plan and prepare for Artemis II in a couple of years. History suggested there would be a long ground campaign to the Space Launch System’s (SLS) first liftoff, and a series of issues — primarily with fueling the SLS Core Stage — kept Artemis I on the ground through most of 2022.
The launch team engineers staffing the Integration Console in the firing room were in the middle of the troubleshooting efforts during the three launch attempts in late August, early September, and mid-November. Resolving the issues that came up with updated procedures and updated software finally culminated with the successful first launch of SLS on Nov. 16 from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida that sent an Orion spacecraft to the Moon.