A fuel leak that prevented NASA from launching its new moon rocket on Saturday will likely take weeks to fix, and may even force the megarocket off its launch pad.
The liquid hydrogen leak occurred Saturday morning as NASA tried to fuel its massive Space Launch System megarocket to launch Artemis 1, an uncrewed test flight to the moon. Engineers weren't able to fix the leak despite three attempts, so they stood down and assessed the situation further.
Artemis 1 will be on the ground for at least two more weeks at a minimum because of the assessment and repair work that will be recommended.
NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission has live updates.
Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems development, said after the launch scrub that they wouldn't be launching in this time.
On Tuesday, the launch period ends. Artemis 1 will have to wait until October to try again. Due to safety requirements, the SLS rocket may have to be returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building during the repairs. The Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to lift off in October.
The first Artemis 1 launch attempt was scrubbed after the team noticed that one of the engines that power the SLS core stage wasn't cooling down correctly. The team decided to try again on Saturday after analyzing the issue and finding a fault with the temperature sensor.
During Monday's try, the team successfully troubleshot a hydrogen leak, but the one they saw on Saturday was much larger. The Saturday leak occurred near the base of the SLS rocket in a fitting that connects a liquid hydrogen fuel line to the core booster. NASA's Artemis 1 mission manager said that the fuel line leak was caused by an "inadvertent" over pressurization.
The leak was not manageable. He said that the hydrogen gas near the rocket was several times higher than the acceptable range. It's not yet known if the leak was caused by the overpressurization event or not.
He said that correlation does not equal causation and that they wanted to be careful about drawing conclusions.
The soft seal gasket on the quickDisconnect will probably have to be replaced. NASA engineers will meet next week to decide if that can be done at Launch Pad 39B or if the 322 foot tall rocket must be rolled back inside the VAB for easier access.
NASA has a program to explore the moon.
The SLS rocket needs to roll back to the VAB in order to test its flight terminated system, which is designed to destroy the rocket if it strays off course. NASA has to test the safety system every 25 days, but it can only be done in the VAB.
The 25-day deadline for Artemis 1 is just around the corner, so NASA would need a waiver to keep the moon rocket on the pad. At the moment, it's not clear if the mission team will seek a waivers.
We're going to talk with the Range about what the possibilities are.
After the Artemis 1 team has had more time to analyze data and discuss options, the picture will likely start to become clearer. They said that calling off the launch was the right thing to do, as did the NASA Administrator.
Nelson said that the teams know what they're doing and he was proud of them.
Artemis 1 will need more liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant than originally planned, which will cost NASA some money. Nelson said that extra expenditure is acceptable.
He said that the cost of two scrubs is less than a failure.
An uncrewed capsule will be sent to the moon by Artemis 1. If everything goes according to plan, both vehicles will be ready to carry astronauts on the Artemis 2 flight around the moon in 2024.
Ten tiny cubesats are flying on Artemis 1 to conduct a variety of science work. If Artemis 1 rolls back to the VAB, the cubesats' batteries could be charged, but it's not clear if that is necessary for any of them.
Mike Wall is the editor of Spaceflight.com. If you want to follow him, email him at tmalik@space.com. We encourage you to follow us on social media.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
