Teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida are preparing the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft for their return to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) early next week. As work continues at the launch pad throughout the weekend, we will also continue working closely with our commercial crew partners to confirm a …
Teams concluded today’s wet dress rehearsal test at approximately 5:10 p.m. EDT after observing a liquid hydrogen (LH2) leak on the tail service mast umbilical, which is located at the base of the mobile launcher and connects to the rocket’s core stage. The leak was discovered during liquid hydrogen loading operations and prevented the team …
While loading liquid hydrogen (LH2) on the rocket’s core stage earlier this afternoon, engineers detected a leak on the tail service mast , which is located at the base of the mobile launcher and connects to the core stage. Though engineers stopped loading LH2 and liquid oxygen (LOX) on the core stage, the launch director …
Following the completion of slow fill for liquid hydrogen (LH2), teams encountered an issue when they started fast fill operations for LH2. After fast fill on LH2 began, a surge in pressure automatically stopped the flow of liquid hydrogen. Teams are working to troubleshoot this issue and the rocket is in a safe configuration. In …
After troubleshooting an issue with the temperature of liquid oxygen during early stages of propellant loading into the rocket’s core stage, launch controllers have resumed operations. Teams performed chill down operations again before liquid oxygen began flowing into the tank and adjusted pump speeds as necessary during flow to help ensure temperatures remain below limits. …
Liquid oxygen loading into the core stage was automatically halted near the beginning of slow fill operations when temperature readings on the propellant showed it was warmer than intended. The rocket is in a safe configuration while teams troubleshoot and determine a path forward. Engineers believe they understand the issue and are working a …
The launch control team has begun chill down operations and resumed the countdown clock ahead of flowing super cold liquid oxygen (LOX) into the core stage tank. The new T-0 time for today’s test is 3:57 p.m. EDT for the first of the two terminal count runs for the wet dress rehearsal. The process …
At approximately 8:05 a.m. EDT, the launch director gave the “go” to start tanking operations. The countdown will resume at 8:47 a.m. EDT at T-6 hours, 40 minutes. Tanking begins with chilling down the liquid oxygen lines for the core stage. In sequential fashion, liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2) will flow into the …
Teams have extended the current hold in the countdown beyond the planned 1.5 hours. Supply has been reestablished of gaseous nitrogen used to purge oxygen from the rocket prior to tanking operations to ensure a safe environment for propellant loading, but teams need additional time to switch supply from air back to the gaseous nitrogen …
The mission management team chair has given a “go” to proceed with tanking the rocket for the Artemis I wet dress rehearsal test, pending resolution of an issue with an outage at an off-site vendor of gaseous nitrogen used inside the rocket before propellant loading. While a similar issue with a supplier of gaseous nitrogen was …
