Trevor Malman After three attempts to complete a critical power test of the Space Launch System rocket, NASA decided to take a break. On Saturday night, the space agency announced plans to launch the large SLS rocket from the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center at the Vehicle Assembly Building in the coming days. This marks a significant step back for the program, which has been trying since April 1 to complete a “wet dress rehearsal” test, during which the rocket is refueled and reaches 10 seconds after launch. The decision comes after three attempts in the last two weeks. Any attempt to refuel was canceled due to one or more technical problems with the rocket, mobile launch tower, or ground-based propulsion and gas systems. In its most recent effort, on Thursday, April 14, NASA was able to load 49 percent of its liquid oxygen tank into the central stage and 5 percent of its liquid hydrogen tank. Although this represents progress, it did not include the most dynamic part of the test, in which the rocket is fully powered and pressurized. And this, terrestrial systems and computer systems are put into a terminal countdown when each variable is closely monitored. NASA hoped to complete this wet-dress rehearsal test to solve the turns in the sophisticated launch system, so that when the rocket launches later this year for its actual launch, the countdown will proceed fairly smoothly. Advertising
NASA has said so and the service’s contractors will use it in the coming weeks, when the SLS rocket will return to the large vehicle assembly building, to address problems that arose during the refueling tests. For example, the supplier of nitrogen gas systems Air Liquide will upgrade its capabilities. NASA will also replace a defective non-return valve in the upper stage of the rocket, as well as correct a leak in the “umbilical cord service web” of the mobile launch tower, a 10-meter-high construction that provides propulsion and power lines to the rocket. The space agency announcement did not provide any information about the impact plan. It seems likely that it will take about a week to prepare and launch the SLS rocket back into the Vehicle Assembly Building. Then work on the rocket there is likely to last most of May, at least. Then NASA will have to make some difficult decisions. He could choose to spread his rocket and mobile launch tower on the pillow a second time and try again to rehearse the wet dress rehearsal. Then, following its normal procedure, NASA would roll the rocket back into the assembly building to arm the “flight safety system” before rolling for the third time in the take-off launch. It seems that the earliest that the SLS rocket could launch in such a scenario would be August, but a fall drop may be more likely. Another option NASA could follow is to open it, complete a wet dress test on the pillow, and then, if successful, go ahead and launch it within a few days. Under such a scenario, NASA may be able to launch the SLS rocket in June or July. However, this would be dangerous because of the flight safety system. Advertising
During a teleconference on Friday, Artemis’s flight manager Charlie Blackwell-Thompson confirmed that there was a 20-day schedule once the flight safety system was up and running. (This is a range safety mechanism, used by all orbital rockets, that destroys the amplifier in case it deviates from its course). Once the system is activated, it will take about a week for the final preparations to be made at the Vehicle Assembly Building and one week for it to roll onto the launch pad and make the preparations there. That would leave only a week for a supply test and recycling of goods, and maybe one or two launch attempts before the 20-day window closes. In other words, this means that the wet dress test should be almost flawless and then the launch effort will also be flawless. It would also mean that summer weather in Florida – when there are many storms and other adverse conditions – should also work together. Finally, NASA engineers also have to weigh a number of other factors, such as damage to the rocket and its side-mounted amplifiers, overseas exposure, and seemingly countless material life issues with the material. For example, service officials are closely monitoring the health of the fuel in solid-state rocket boosters, which were stacked about 16 months ago, among other issues. However, NASA seems confident that it will go through this arduous teething process for the SLS rocket. a program that is now 11 years old and in which NASA has invested more than $ 30 billion in the rocket and ground systems currently being tested. “There is no doubt in my mind that we will complete this test campaign and listen to the material and the data will take us to the next step,” Blackwell-Thompson said on Friday. “And we will take the appropriate measures and launch this vehicle. I do not know exactly what that date is, but I have no doubt in my mind that we will complete the test campaign and be ready to fly.”