NASA says it detected leak on Artemis II moon rocket during testing

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — On Monday afternoon, NASA stated that its teams detected a leak on its Artemis II moon rocket during the wet dress rehearsal.

In an update, NASA stated that its teams have been able to fill the Space Launch System rocket’s core stage.

“Teams have stopped the flow of liquid hydrogen through the tail service mast umbilical interface into the core stage after leak concentrations exceeded allowable limits,” the U.S. space agency stated.

NASA stated that by stopping the flow of fuel, it lets engineers conduct troubleshooting processes that were first developed during Artemis I in 2022.

During three separate occurrences, NASA detected liquid hydrogen leaks on the Space Launch System rocket during the Artemis I mission.

“Liquid oxygen continues to flow into the core stage, and liquid hydrogen continues to flow into the upper stage,” NASA stated about the Artemis II wet dress rehearsal.

In a new update, NASA stated that fixing the leak has “proved unsuccessful”.

“After teams temporarily resumed fast fill of liquid hydrogen operations into the core stage, initial steps to correct the leak proved unsuccessful. The leak rate at the interface of the tail service mast umbilical continues to exceed the allowable limits. Liquid hydrogen filling operations on both the core stage and upper stage are paused as the team meets to determines next steps,” NASA explained.

It was stated during the live feed that at 3:48 p.m. ET that the core stage liquid hydrogen fast fill has resumed.

In a 4:41 p.m. ET update, NASA stated, “NASA teams have completed filling the core stage of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with liquid hydrogen and transitioned to topping mode. … Engineers continue to watch the leak at the interface of the tail service mast umbilical, but the liquid hydrogen concentration in the umbilical remains within acceptable limits.”

During one of the launch attempts of Artemis I, that there was a leak at that same section. 

In another update early in the evening, the U.S. space agency confirmed that the rocket has been filled with fuel, but the teams are keeping an eye on the leak.

“Engineers continue to monitor liquid hydrogen concentration levels in the tail service mast umbilical, where a leak was previously detected. Levels are currently stable,” NASA stated.

The wet dress rehearsal of the Orion capsule and the SLS rocket has teams loading more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic fuel into the rocket, conducting a launch countdown and practicing safely removing the fuel from the rocket.

Once the Artemis II stacked rocket is ready for launch, it will send NASA’s Cmdr. Gregory Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut mission specialist Jeremy Hansen to the moon in a flyby mission.