KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — After detecting a liquid hydrogen leak during its first wet dress rehearsal of the Artemis II moon rocket, NASA will attempt a second test of the launch vehicle that will take humans back to the moon.
What You Need To Know
- The U.S. space agency is eyeing Thursday for a second wet dress rehearsal
- If all goes well, March 6 might be the earliest chance for Artemis II launch
- The first wet dress rehearsal found leaks; NASA replaced seals
- RELATED coverage:
The U.S. space agency is eyeing Thursday for a second wet dress rehearsal, as it will put more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic fuel into the Space Launch System rocket during a test of that and the Orion capsule. It will also simulate a launch countdown, the ability to recycle the countdown clock and drain the tanks to practice for possible scrubs.
“Launch controllers will arrive to their consoles in the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:40 p.m. EST on Feb. 17 to begin the nearly 50-hour countdown. The simulated launch time is 8:30 p.m., Feb. 19, with a four-hour window for the test. While the Artemis II crew is not participating in the test, a team of personnel will go to the launch pad to practice Orion closeout operations, including closing the spacecraft’s hatches,” NASA explained on Monday.
NASA provided a bit more detail on the test.
During the rehearsal, the team will execute a detailed countdown sequence. Operators will conduct two runs of the last ten minutes of the countdown, known as terminal count. They will pause at T-1 minute and 30 seconds for up to three minutes, then resume until T-33 seconds before launch and pause again. After that, they will recycle the clock back to T-10 minutes and conduct a second terminal countdown to just inside of T-30 seconds before ending the sequence. This process simulates real-world conditions, including scenarios where a launch might be scrubbed due to technical or weather issues.
During the first wet dress rehearsal on Monday, Feb. 02, NASA teams found a liquid hydrogen leak in an interface that is used to route the fuel into the SLS’s core stage, as well as other issues.
In fact, that was the same section where a liquid hydrogen leak was found during the Artemis I mission.
While technicians replaced two seals in that area since the Artemis II first pretest, this past weekend, NASA made additional fixes to issues that were discovered during a different test.
“Over the weekend, teams replaced a filter in ground support equipment that was suspected of reducing the flow of liquid hydrogen during a Feb. 12 partial fueling test. The test provided enough data to allow engineers to plan toward a second wet dress rehearsal this week. Engineers have reconnected the line with the new filter and are reestablishing proper environmental conditions,” NASA stated in a blog post.
Because the leak and other issues were discovered during the first wet dress rehearsal, NASA had to push the launch of the Artemis II to early March. It was supposed to launch early February.
Officials stated that if all goes well, NASA will be eyeing March 6 as the earliest chance to launch the historical mission.
But officials stressed that it all depends on how the second test goes and its findings.
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.
Artemis II launch attempt dates
Source link