Artemis Launch Plan Here Are Nasa S Next Steps

NASA early Saturday halted its second attempt to launch the Artemis 1 mission into lunar orbit after engineers failed to seal a hydrogen leak that occurred while loading propellants into the rocket’s fuel tanks. After the second launch attempt failed, NASA likely won’t fire for a third attempt in September. NASA said the hydrogen leak occurred at an “interface between the liquid hydrogen fuel supply line and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.” The SLS is uniquely capable of carrying the Orion spacecraft, astronauts and supplies to the Moon in a single mission. The second launch of the Artemis 1 mission, an unmanned test, is set for Saturday at 2:17 p.m. ET (11:17 a.m. PT) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The SLS main stage, manufactured by Boeing, is 212 feet (64.6 meters) tall and 27.6 feet (8.4 meters) in diameter. It stores cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as well as the systems to power the stage’s four R2-25 engines. WATCH: What is Artemis? Everything you need to know about NASA’s mission to the new moon Artemis is a multi-stage project that aims to send astronauts back to the Moon – and beyond. The Artemis mission will also see the first woman and person of color land on the Moon. NASA’s Artemis mission team previously aborted a launch attempt on August 29 when engineers failed to cool all four RS-25 engines to minus 420 degrees Fahrenheit (-250 C) – a necessary step to ensure the center stage will not be destroyed on the eight-minute trip to low Earth orbit. After reaching low Earth orbit, the core stage separates from the upper stage and the Orion spacecraft. During the second launch attempt, one of the four engines was running hotter than the others, according to NASA. This so-called “bleed test” is performed before the supercooled liquid hydrogen flows into the rocket’s core stage.
During the first launch attempt, engineers also discovered a hydrogen leak in a “purge canister”, but at this stage it could be dealt with by manually adjusting the propellant flow rates. After Saturday’s failed attempt to launch the Artemis 1 mission, NASA revealed it tried three times to cover up the leak. “Engineers saw a leak in a cavity between the ground and the rocket’s side plates surrounding an 8-inch line used to fill and drain liquid hydrogen from the SLS rocket. Three attempts to reattach the seal were unsuccessful,” it said. NASA in a Saturday Afternoon Briefing. NASA is investigating whether an “inadvertent command” sent during an early hydrogen loading phase temporarily increased pressure in the system and may have contributed to the seal leak. “While in an early phase of hydrogen loading operations called chilldown, when launch controllers cool down the lines and propulsion system before extremely cold liquid hydrogen flows into the rocket’s tank at minus 423 degrees F, an inadvertent command was sent that temporarily increased the pressurization While the rocket remained safe and it is too early to say whether the pressure bump contributed to the cause of the seal leak, engineers are looking into the issue,” NASA said. WATCH: NASA’s new tiny, high-powered laser could find water on the Moon At about 11:17 am ET, about three hours before Saturday’s launch window opened, Artemis launch manager Charlie Blackwell-Thompson opted to clear the second attempt. According to Reuters, NASA had reserved launch times for either Monday or Tuesday this week, but concluded that it would take longer than that to repair the new hydrogen leak. The next available window is between Sept. 19 and 30 or another window in October, NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said in a media briefing.
Mike Sarafin, NASA’s Artemis mission manager, said it will take “several weeks of work” to resolve current technical issues. If that involves rolling the SLS back into the assembly building, any launch could be delayed until mid-October. According to NASA’s Artemis mission availability website, from October 17 to October 31 there are 11 launch opportunities. The rocket cannot be launched on any day – there are four main criteria that must be met.

The launch day must take into account the position of the Moon in its lunar cycle so that the SLS rocket’s upper stage can time the superlunar injection burn to intercept it “on the ramp” for the lunar far retrograde orbit. The resulting orbit should ensure that Orion is not in the dark for more than 90 minutes at a time so that the solar array wings can receive and convert sunlight into electricity. It must support an orbit that allows for the “entry bypass” technique planned for Orion’s return to Earth, which sees the spacecraft plunge into Earth’s upper atmosphere, decelerate and exit the atmosphere, then to re-enter for final descent and dive. The launch date should mean a drop in daylight for Orion to facilitate the recovery of the spacecraft from the Pacific Ocean.