NASA has postponed the lunar mission until at least March after deciding to suspend the general rehearsal of the countdown to the Moon, with five minutes left, after it reappeared that the filling maneuvers of the SLS rocket tanks had been paralyzed. This has been confirmed by NASA administrator Jared Isaaacman.
The ship, crowned with the Orion capsule that must take astronauts to the Moon, has not been able to successfully complete this decisive test for the launch of the manned mission to the Moon Artemis 2. This setback complicates its launch, initially scheduled for next Sunday, February 8. The next window to send astronauts begins on March 6.
“The Artemis II test countdown was stopped at minute T-5:15 due to a leak of liquid hydrogen” at a point on the device “that had also experienced high concentrations of liquid hydrogen earlier in the count,” NASA explained. “The launch control team is working to ensure that the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket is in a safe configuration to begin emptying its tanks,” he added.
The US space agency had planned for early this Tuesday a complete fuel loading test on the Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket it has developed in its entire history. It is the ship chosen to take the four crew members of the Artemis 2 mission, the .
This test was carried out without astronauts on board. When the ship is launched, the pilot, who will be the first black man to go to the Moon, the specialist, the first woman, specialist Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian, and commander Reid Wiseman will travel inside the Orion capsule. All of them have been in quarantine since last Monday in Houston, in the state of Texas, to prevent contagion from delaying takeoff.
The bad weather, especially the cold, had forced these tests, initially scheduled for Saturday, to be postponed, with the idea of launching the rocket on Friday. If everything went well this Monday, the earliest release date was Sunday.
NASA had set the new imaginary takeoff date for this Monday at 9:00 p.m. local time, 3:00 a.m. in mainland Spain. The countdown actually began 48 hours earlier with the arrival of all the launch teams at their stations. The main task was to fill the rocket tanks with more than two and a half million liters of cryogenic fuel, carry out the countdown, stop it, and finally remove the fuel from the rocket. These tests are carried out without astronauts on board the ship. The imaginary launch window was extended by four hours, to allow for possible setbacks.
The first test included a countdown to one minute and 30 seconds before takeoff. There would then be a planned three-minute pause and the sequence would resume until 33 seconds before launch, the point at which the rocket’s automatic sequencer takes control of the final seconds. The teams would then turn the clock back to 10 minutes before launch and count down again to 30 seconds before a hypothetical rocket firing.
If necessary, NASA can take it and Orion back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for additional work before launch after refueling testing.
Over the past weekend, teams successfully completed maintenance on the SLS boosters, including loading hydrazine into the rear sections of the boosters, essential for maintaining correct trajectory during takeoff and escaping Earth’s gravity. The pyrotechnic equipment of the crew’s emergency evacuation system has also been tested.
Given what has hit the United States and the below-normal temperatures expected in Florida, technicians have taken measures to ensure that the environmental control systems that keep the Orion and the elements of the SLS in adequate condition are prepared for the cold.
Engineers and scientists are also resolving incidents detected during operations in preparation for manned flight, as reported by NASA in a . During an evaluation of the emergency evacuation system, baskets used to transport crew and platform personnel from the mobile launcher in an emergency stopped before reaching the end zone within the perimeter of the platform. The system’s brakes have since been adjusted to ensure the baskets descend completely. Technicians will also take additional samples from Orion’s drinking water system to confirm that the water is suitable for the crew. Initial samples showed higher than expected levels of total organic carbon.
