Fuel leak thwarts NASA’s dress rehearsal for moon rocket
NASA flight engineers again halt wet dress rehearsal of the Artemis 1 moon rocket after a new hydrogen leak is detected.
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The Artemis 1 Space Launch System rocket at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39B
NASA flight engineers have again stopped the already-delayed wet dress rehearsal of the Artemis 1 moon rocket after a new hydrogen leak was detected from the tail service mast, according to a NASA official blog.
The blog explained on Thursday that while liquid hydrogen (LH2) was loaded on the rocket's core stage, engineers detected the leak at the tail service mast, which is located at the base of the mobile launcher.
After the leak was detected, engineers stopped loading liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (LOX) on the core stage.
"Engineers will not load LH2 or LOX into the ICPS tanks, due to an issue with a helium check valve experienced several days ago. When teams paused propellant loading earlier today, there was about 49% of LOX on the core stage and about 5% of LH2 was loaded into the core stage tank prior to the hydrogen leak," NASA added.
Because of the modified configurations and delays with fuel loading, the terminal countdown did not take place. NASA teams are currently reassessing the next steps and will determine how to proceed.
