NASA’s Artemis 1 lunar rocket passed a critical fueling test on Wednesday (Sept. 21), which could keep it on track for a planned trip on Sept. 1. 27 takeoff.
Artemis 1 will send an uncrewed Orion capsule into lunar orbit using a giant space launch system (SLS) rocket. NASA attempted to launch the mission on September 1. 3 but was foiled by a Liquid hydrogen propellant leak on a “quick disconnect” in the SLS’s core stage, an interface that links the rocket to a fuel line from its mobile launch tower.
Artemis team 1 replaced two seals around the quick disconnect on September 1st. 9, then scheduled a fuel test to see if the fix worked. That test occurred Wednesday on Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, and it brought good news for the mission.
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“All of the goals we set for ourselves we were able to achieve today,” Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson of the Earth Systems Exploration Program at KSC said in brief remarks after Wednesday’s test, which took up most of the weather. day
That’s not to say that everything went perfectly. For example, the leak at the quick disconnect reappeared during liquid hydrogen charging. But the team managed to fix it; they heated up the quick disconnect, allowing it to “reseat” which reduced the leak rate to acceptable levels.
Artemis 1 personnel also noticed a different hydrogen leak during a “pre-pressurization test,” which was also part of Wednesday’s activities. This test “allowed engineers to calibrate the settings used to condition the motors during the terminal count and to validate timelines prior to launch day to reduce schedule risk during the launch day countdown,” company officials said. POT. explained in a blog post (opens in a new tab) after the test finished.
This second leak was smaller than the other and the Artemis 1 team was able to keep it under control, agency officials said.
NASA is currently considering September 1. October 27 as the launch target for Artemis 1, with a possible backup date of October 1. 2. It’s too early to formally commit to any of those dates despite Wednesday’s success, Blackwell-Thompson said.
“I think we’ll take the data and go see what it tells us,” he said. But, she added, “I am extremely encouraged by today’s test and achieving all of our goals.”
A few other things have to go the way of Artemis 1 for the mission to launch in the next couple of weeks as well. The weather has to cooperate, for example, and that’s never a sure thing on the Florida Space Coast. The mission must also obtain a certification waiver for its flight termination system (FTS), which is designed to destroy the SLS if it veers off course during launch.
the US space force, which oversees the Cordillera Oriental for rocket launches, certified the Artemis 1 FTS for 25 days, and that time is up. The mission has requested a waiver; if not granted, the massive rocket will have to be rolled from pad 39B back to KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building, the only place recertification can occur.
“Right now, we’re still in the process of having technical discussions with the Range,” said Tom Whitmeyer, NASA deputy associate administrator for Common Exploration Systems Development, during a press conference on Monday (Sept. 19). , referring to the exemption. situation “It’s been very productive and collaborative.”
Artemis 1 has already received one such waiver from FTS, which extended certification from 20 to 25 days.
If all goes well with Artemis 1, Artemis 2 will launch astronauts around Moon in 2024 and Artemis 3 will land near the lunar south pole a year or two later. the sagebrush Ultimately, the program aims to establish a long-term human presence on and around the Moon, and use the skills and knowledge gained doing so to land astronauts on Mars in the late 2030s or early 2030s. 2040.
Mike Wall is the author of “out there (opens in a new tab)(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; Illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @migueldwall (opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacepointcom (opens in a new tab) or in Facebook (opens in a new tab).
