A series of issues that prevented NASA from conducting a test of feeding the “mega rocket of the moon” this week may not be resolved in time to try again next week, NASA officials said on Friday. The service hopes to make a fourth attempt to complete the fuel supply test, but could only do so if technicians find the source of the leak in one of the fuel lines that completed the most recent test on Thursday. “We hope there is something quite simple that needs to be adapted or resolved easily and we can do it as a pad and do it in a relatively short time,” Mike Sarafin, NASA’s director of mission for the lunar program, told reporters. Artemis. Friday. If not, however, the rocket may need to return to its assembly building, causing further delays. Earlier this month, NASA dropped the high-powered Space Launch System rocket on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center for the first time with great admiration for a series of tests before its first launch. The rocket, which has been under development for years and is billions of dollars in budget, is designed to launch NASA astronauts to the moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo era. The first launch on NASA’s Artemis program will send the Orion crew capsule into orbit around the moon without people on board. This was scheduled for this spring. But with NASA’s problems with the cushion, it is unclear when this launch will take place. Sarafin said the supply test will take place as soon as possible next Thursday. Known as the “wet dress rehearsal”, the test is intended to fully power the two stages of the rocket with more than 700,000 gallons of extremely cold liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen. NASA will then conduct a countdown simulation in preparation for the first rocket launch later this year. But since the SLS was launched to the launch pad, NASA has encountered a number of glitches: leaks in a line supplying liquid hydrogen, problems with propulsion temperature measurements, and malfunctioning fans used to pressurize the mobile launch tower. Last week, NASA discovered a problem with a helical pressure valve in the second stage of a rocket designed to prevent liquids or gases from flowing in the wrong direction. Ground crews were unable to access the small, just three-inch-long section of the second stage of the rocket, and said they would have to replace it as soon as they rolled the rocket back into its assembly building. With the valve malfunctioning, NASA said it would not attempt to fuel the second stage, which means that some key parts of the test could not be performed. On Thursday, NASA had to stop the process of refueling for the first stage, after the crews discovered a leak. “When you have hydrogen leaks and you have ambient oxygen out there, you only need one source of ignition to close the fire triangle,” Sarafin said. “So there was a risk of flammability and we abolished the test as a result.” During the truncated test, they were able to charge only 5 percent of the liquid hydrogen and 49 percent of the liquid oxygen. NASA officials knew they were going to have problems with a rocket as huge and complex as the SLS. It is 322 feet high, taller than the Statue of Liberty, and is more powerful than the Saturn V rocket that flew astronauts to the moon during the time of Apollo. Computers have 18 miles of wiring and more than 500 sensors. The propellants are extremely cold and volatile – liquid oxygen is kept at -297 degrees Fahrenheit, liquid hydrogen at -423 degrees. Since the rocket has never flown, the crews need time to learn how it works in a real environment. Despite the failures, NASA has learned a lot and gathered a lot of data about the rocket and how it works, said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s Artemis launch director. Troubleshooting is the test case, he said, and it is not uncommon for such a huge rocket to have never flown before. “Although we did not manage to complete the planned activities, we certainly did a lot,” he said. “History has shown that it was a challenge for almost anyone to do something of this magnitude.” After NASA had to stop the test because the temperature limit in liquid oxygen exceeded expectations, Wayne Hale, former NASA flight director and space shuttle program manager, wrote on Twitter that “preventing a catastrophic increase in pressure (” geyser “) ) in cryogenic systems is very difficult. Shuttle has taken this concern well over the years of practice. “It is not surprising that the adaptation of procedures takes time for the ground system of a new rocket.” Regarding the leak in the hydrogen line, he said that “a leak is almost expected the first time. But not satisfactory. “ Recent failures will fuel criticism of the rocket, which has been mocked as a “Senate Launch System” as it provides jobs in key areas of Congress. Recently, the NASA Inspector General targeted the rocket, saying that his office had estimated the cost of its first three flights at $ 4.1 billion each, a price he said was “unsustainable.” However, NASA and industry groups have objected to this analysis, saying it involves a wide range of costs, including personnel at major NASA centers, that are not directly related to the rocket’s operations. While the launch date remains in the works, Sarafin said she is “confident we will get there.” But he added: “If you want an exact date, I can not give it to you right now.”
