The rocket that will carry NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission is at the pad for a series of tests this weekend.
NASA officials held a call with reporters on Wednesday to give an update on the upcoming tests, which include a "wet dress rehearsal."
On June 6th, the Artemis 1 stack was rolled out to the historic Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The wet dress is scheduled to start on Saturday, June 18.
The Artemis 1 moon mission is explained in photos.
Artemis 1 will be the first launch for the SLS and will send an uncrewed capsule around the moon and back. This is Artemis 1's second time at the pad for a wet dress rehearsal, a launch simulation that involves fueling the rocket and running through the procedures of an actual launch.
In early April, NASA attempted to fuel up the SLS three times in a row. After a hydrogen leak and other issues prevented fueling of the rocket, the Artemis 1 team decided to return to the Vehicle Assembly Building.
Over the course of about a month, teams at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida were able to make necessary repairs to the SLS vehicle and associated ground systems, as well as get a jumpstart on some upgrades that had been originally scheduled for after the wet dress rehearsal.
Jim Free, associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA, said during Wednesday's call that they fixed thehydrogen leak.
The time in the VAB gave technicians a chance to improve their skills. Teams in the VAB were able to update and automate procedures for filling the rocket's fuel tanks using knowledge from the space shuttle days
Exploration Ground Systems teams, as well as other Artemis-focused NASA offices, were praised by Free for their excellent planning to save as much of this year's launch periods as possible. SLS is still a new vehicle, and while officials are hopeful for a late August Artemis 1 launch attempt, a successful wet dress rehearsal needs to precede the liftoff.
NASA has a program to explore the moon.
The first step is to get us back to the moon. The objectives of the launch are very specific. A flight test is what it is. We want to test the heat shield at lunar reentry velocities, we want to make sure we recover the vehicle, and we want to make sure the systems work in space.
The Artemis 1 stack has undergone validation tests over the past week at Pad 39B, according to Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director with the Exploration Ground Systems Program at KSC. The SLS mobile launch platform and the command and control systems in NASA's launch control center had to be confirmed after Artemis 1 returned to the pad.
Booster servicing procedures and hypergolic fuel loading for the booster power unit were done this past weekend. The system is scheduled to be tested within 30 seconds of the dress rehearsal.
Our wet dress rehearsal preps are in full swing, but our pad flow is complete. A full power-down of the launch vehicle preceded the completion of prep work on the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen systems.
The next power-up will be part of the wet dress rehearsals. She said that a pre-test briefing for ground teams will take place on Friday, with the expectation that the dress will be wet the next day. The rehearsal is expected to last 48 hours and will run the vehicle through a number of simulations.
NASA officials are hopeful that a successful wet dress rehearsal will keep Artemis 1 on track for an available launch window at the end of August, but they are focused on completing the wet dress first. The schedule of possible launch windows for the Artemis 1 mission has been published by NASA.
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