Artemis II Crew Prepares for Journey Around Moon by Entering Quarantine

With the Artemis II spacecraft on the launchpad and engineers doing final checks in preparation for spaceflight, the crew of the upcoming mission have gone into quarantine.  NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen have entered the pre-flight period called the health stabilization program.  This is a period of isolation to help prevent the astronauts from picking up any illnesses that could delay their flight.

Typically, astronauts go into quarantine about 14 days before launch.  If all goes well with the wet dress rehearsal, they will fly to Kennedy Space Center in Florida about six days ahead of the spaceflight.  There, they live in astronaut crew quarters until launch.  During quarantine, they can continue regular contact with family (provided they follow quarantine rules), but they avoid public places, wear masks, and maintain distance with people they come in contact with.

If the wet dress rehearsal shows that the spacecraft is not ready for launch, the astronauts can come out of quarantine and will reenter quarantine 14 days before the next flight window.  The first flight window opens up in early February.

You can read more about the Artemis II mission preparations here.