Times and steps to liftoff and after launch

There are many steps to take and key moments for the teams on ground, from NASA’s Ground Exploration Systems preparing fuelling to mission control monitoring the minutes and hours after launch.

Here are the main moments, presented in mission elapsed time as well as predicted times at the local timezone at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, as well as GMT, and Central European Time.

We will update the predicted times as they pass to the actual moment they happened. For example liftoff can occur at any time in today’s two-hour launch window, and times can change.

Event		Mission elapsed time	Local	GMT	CET
Go for tanking	L-	09:40:00	14:31	20:31	21:31
Liquid oxygen core stage pipes chilled and tanking begins	L-	09:00:00	15:04	21:04	22:04
Liquid hydrogen core stage pipes chilled and tanking begins	L-	09:00:00	15:04	21:04	22:04
Core stage tanks full	L-		19:43	00:43	01:43
Second stage tanking liquid hydrogen begins	L-	05:00:00	20:22	01:22	02:22
Second stage tanking liquid oxygen begins	L-	05:00:00	20:22	01:22	02:22
Launch poll	L-	00:10:00	00:47:52	04:54:00	05:54:00
European Service Module to internal power	L-	00:06:00	00:57:52	05:58:00	06:58
Engine startup	L-	00:00:08	01:03:52	06:03:52	05:03:52
Two-hour launch window for liftoff starts	L	00:00:00	01:04:00	06:04:00	07:04:00
Fairing separation	L+	00:02:10	01:06:10	06:06:10	07:06:10
Service Module panels discarded	L+	00:03:10	01:07:10	06:07:10	07:07:10
Launch abort system discarded	L+	00:03:20	01:07:20	06:07:20	07:07:20
Main engine cutoff – Orion is weightless	L+	00:08:00	01:12:00	06:12:00	07:12:00
Core stage discarded	L+	00:08:15	01:12:15	06:12:15	07:12:15
Solar array wings deployed	L+	00:18:00	01:22:00	06:22:00	07:22:00
Second stage fires for higher orbit	L+	00:53:00	01:57:00	06:57:00	07:57:00
Second stage fires to push Orion to the Moon	L+	01:23:00	02:27:00	07:27:00	08:27:00
Second stage separates from Orion	L+	01:51:00	02:55:00	07:55:00	08:55:00