Wednesday will be “Did-It-Work-Day?” if NASA follows through with current plans to test changes to the Space Launch System’s leaky fueling system at its Florida launch pad.
The fueling system leaked Sept. 3 as NASA tried to fill the tanks for second attempt to launch the unmanned Artemis 1 mission. That followed a first attempt Aug. 29 canceled by a faulty sensor reading.
If the latest fueling fix worked, NASA will set its eye on Sept. 27 to launch the rocket’s first un-crewed flight around the moon. If the fix didn’t work, NASA has Oct. 2 as a potential backup launch date. NASA is also coordinating with SpaceX to target “no earlier than 12:45 p.m. EDT Monday, Oct. 3, for the launch of the agency’s Crew-5 mission to the International Space Station.” Teams are working both launches simultaneously and both launch schedules could change.
SLS is largely the product of Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center and it’s NASA’s goal to use the behemoth rocket to propel men and the first woman and Black person to land on the moon. The rockets also could be eventually be used on longer missions to Mars. Marshall engineers have been in Florida helping work through the launch issues.
Marshall oversaw construction of the rocket by lead contractor Boeing, tested its engines at the Stennis Space Center Marshall oversees in Mississippi, and tested SLS stages in squeeze-to failure pressure tests at Marshall.
The engines are leftover space shuttle engines known and chosen for their reliability and have been test fired at Stennis. But two launch attempts at the Kennedy center were scrapped Aug. 29 and Sept. 3 because of problems with the fueling system.
NASA said crews have analyzed the liquid hydrogen fuel line seals between the rocket and the mobile launcher and adjusted fuel loading procedures. “Engineers identified a small indentation found on the eight-inch-diameter liquid hydrogen seal that may have been a contributing factor to the leak on the previous launch attempt,” NASA said Monday.
NASA says it will “transition temperatures and pressures more slowly” in fueling to cut the risk of leaks. Fuel loading will begin at about 6 a.m. CDT and end around 2 p.m. “after the teams have met their objectives.”
Three launches are planned in NASA’s Artemis program return to the moon. The first will be a lunar fly-around with no crew, the second will have a crew but no landing and the third will land the “first woman and first person of color” on the lunar surface.
The program gets its name from the ancient goddess who was the twin sister of Apollo, namesake of the first moon landing program in the 1960s. Making that return trip to the moon 239,000 miles away is far more challenging than flying 254 miles to the International Space Station even though the icy vacuum of space remains the same.