Blogs

Private Astronaut Mission (PAM) Axiom-1: Public Affairs Office (PAO), Payload, and Commercial Activities: Multiple NASA-sponsored and ESA-sponsored PAO events have been performed, including eight Ice Cube Media Set events, three Ham radio events, and three PAO events, including a duet in space between Mike LA and the neoclassical pianist BLKBOK. The Ax-1 crew completed activities …

NASA and SpaceX are preparing for a Commercial Crew swap taking place this month at the International Space Station. Meanwhile, the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) astronauts are staying busy as two cosmonauts gear up for a pair of spacewalks outside the orbiting lab’s Russian segment. Two Commercial Crew missions are getting ready to trade places …

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. …

The journey of commissioning the Webb telescope continues this week with the successful cooling of the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), through the critical ‘pinch point,’ down to its final operating temperature of less than 7 kelvins (-447 degrees Fahrenheit, or -266 degrees Celsius). This was a precondition to completing the seventh and final stage of the …

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 …