The core stage rocket engines on NASA's moon rocket performed as expected after a replacement of a faulty control mechanism, the agency said.
The upcoming uncrewed moon mission, Artemis I, which will mark the beginning of humanity's return to the moon, was delayed because of a faulty controller.
Aerojet Rocketdyne manufactured the engines that were used in the space shuttle era. There are four engines that power the core stage of the SLS moon rocket.
All four engine controllers performed as expected during the latest power up of the Artemis I SLS core stage, which was performed by NASA in cooperation with the engine-maker earlier this month.
The engine controllers communicate with the rest of the rocket to provide precision control and internal health diagnostics.
This is a time-lapse video of NASA's huge SLS rocket for the Artemis 1 moon mission coming together.
A faulty memory chip caused the fault in the engine four controller, which has no impact on controller operations beyond that point, NASA said in a statement.
NASA said that there were no constraints to the wet dress rehearsal test that needs to be performed ahead of the launch because there was no indication of faulty memory chips on the other three engines.
NASA had to delay the Artemis I launch to April because of the fault.
Pre-flight diagnostic tests at Kennedy Space Center in Florida include testing the flight terminated system and the twin solid rocket boosters.
The wet dress rehearsal test for the rocket will take place in March at Launch Pad 39B, where the teams will run through a pre-launch sequence to get ready for the launch.
The dress rehearsal test is used to verify the performance of the rocket, capsule and ground systems. The launch date for the Artemis I mission will only be set by NASA after the wet dress rehearsal.
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