After scrapping a second attempt to get its new 30-story lunar rocket off the ground due to a fuel leak, NASA officials on Saturday said it might not be possible to try again this month.
The launch window for NASA’s Artemis 1 mission to the moon ends tomorrow and is “definitely off the table,” Exploration Systems Development associate administrator Jim Free told a news conference.
The next possible launch window is Sept.19 to Oct. 4, and failing that, Oct. 17 to 31, NASA said.
Photo: AFP
The ability to take off during those windows “will really depend on the options that the team comes back with likely on Monday or early Tuesday morning,” Free said.
Millions around the world tuned in to live coverage and crowds gathered on beaches in Florida on Saturday hoping to witness the historic blastoff of the Space Launch System (SLS).
However, a leak near the base of the rocket was found as ultra-cold liquid hydrogen was being pumped in, forcing a halt.
The Artemis 1 space mission hopes to test the SLS, as well as the uncrewed Orion capsule that sits atop, in preparation for future moon-bound journeys with humans aboard.
The first launch attempt on Monday was also halted after engineers detected a fuel leak and a sensor showed that one of the rocket’s four main engines was too hot.
“This is a whole new vehicle, a whole new technology, a whole new purpose of going back to the moon and preparation to go to Mars,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said. “Yes, it’s hard.”
Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin described the hydrogen leak as “large,” and said one of their “leading suspects” was a seal on a fueling tube.
Engineering teams believe the seal needs replacing, either directly on the launch pad or after taking the rocket back to its assembly building a few kilometers away.
It was “too early” to entirely rule out a launch before the end of this month, said Sarafin, promising a status update next week.
NASA has previously said that the early October period would be complicated to coordinate because a crew of astronauts would be using the Kennedy Space Center for a rocket launch to the International Space Station.
In addition to the leak, another problem facing the SLS is its emergency self-destruct system.
Designed to explode in case the rocket deviates off course, the system would likely need to be re-examined before the next launch, which can only be done in the assembly building.
Bringing the rocket in and out of the building would take “several weeks,” Sarafin said.
Once launched by SLS, the Orion capsule would take several days to reach the moon, flying around 100km at its closest approach.
The capsule would fire its engines to get to a distant retrograde orbit of 64,374km beyond the moon, a record for a spacecraft rated to carry humans.
Mannequins equipped with sensors would stand in for astronauts on the Artemis 1 mission and would record acceleration, vibration and radiation levels.
The trip is expected to last about six weeks and one of its main objectives is to test the capsule’s heat shield, which at 4.9m in diameter is the largest ever built.
On its return to Earth’s atmosphere, the heat shield would have to withstand speeds of 40,234kph and a temperature of 2,760°C — roughly half as hot as the sun.
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