NASA conducts 2nd rocket fueling test that decides when astronauts head to moon

NASA is taking different ace astatine fueling its elephantine satellite rocket aft leaks halted the archetypal formal rehearsal and delayed astronauts' archetypal travel to the satellite successful much than fractional a century

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA took different ace astatine fueling its elephantine satellite rocket Thursday aft leaks halted the archetypal formal rehearsal and delayed the archetypal lunar travel by astronauts successful much than fractional a century.

For the 2nd clip this month, motorboat teams began pumping much than 700,000 gallons (2.6 cardinal liters) of supercold substance into the rocket atop its motorboat pad.

It’s the astir captious and challenging portion of the two-day signifier countdown. The result volition find whether a March motorboat is imaginable for the Artemis II satellite ngo with 4 astronauts.

During the rehearsal 2 weeks ago, unsafe amounts of supercold liquid hydrogen escaped from the connections betwixt the pad and the 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket. Engineers replaced a brace of seals and a clogged filter successful hopes of getting done the repetition trial astatine Kennedy Space Center.

NASA won’t acceptable a motorboat day for the Artemis II ngo until it passes the fueling demonstration. Like past time, the unit — 3 Americans and 1 Canadian — watched the trial from afar.

The soonest astronauts could soar is March 6. They volition go the archetypal radical to alert to the satellite — making a 10-day out-and-back travel with nary stops — since Apollo 17 successful 1972. They won't orbit oregon land.

NASA has been battling hydrogen substance leaks ever since the abstraction shuttle era, which provided galore of the SLS engines. The archetypal Artemis trial formation without anyone connected committee was grounded for months by leaking hydrogen earlier yet blasting disconnected successful November 2022.

Going years betwixt flights exacerbates the problem, according to NASA’s caller head Jared Isaacman, a tech entrepreneur who financed his ain trips to orbit done SpaceX.

Just 2 months into the job, Isaacman already is promising to redesign the substance connections betwixt the rocket and pad earlier the adjacent Artemis III launch. Still a fewer years away, that ngo volition effort to onshore 2 astronauts adjacent the moon’s southbound pole.

“We volition not motorboat unless we are acceptable and the information of our astronauts volition stay the highest priority,” helium said past week connected X.

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