NASA: Artemis I moves forward for August launch of around-the-moon mission
NASA is pushing ahead toward a late August launch of its giant moon rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, despite not fully completing a "wet dress rehearsal" Monday.
NASA officials have reviewed the data collected during the test run and decided that a leaky hydrogen valve was not significant enough to force a delay in the launch of Artemis I, an uncrewed mission planning to orbit the moon and return to Earth. It's the first step toward putting humans back on the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.
“The team is now ready to take the next step and prepare for launch," said NASA's deputy associate administrator Tom Whitmeyer.
NASA officials said they will roll the massive Space Launch System rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where the valve's faulty seal will be replaced. Rollback is slated for Friday July 1, though weather concerns could push that back.
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Monday's test run was the fourth "wet dress rehearsal" for the rocket. Three previous tries back in April all failed to completely fuel the rocket.
Monday's countdown was scheduled to go through to T-9.3 seconds, the point that the rocket's engines begin firing. But the hydrogen leak forced a hold at T-10 minutes as engineers tried to find a way to stop the leak.
While they couldn't stop the leak, agency officials decided to push on with the test as if everything was OK. But when the rocket's onboard computers took over the final countdown sequence it detected the leak and shut down the countdown at T-23 seconds.
Still, NASA was able to meet its most important part of the test: completely filling the rocket's tanks with hundreds of thousands of gallons of super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
"The team continues to impress me with their creative thinking and resourcefulness,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director at Kennedy. “Our Artemis launch team has worked quickly to adapt to the dynamics of propellant loading operations. With each milestone and each test, we are another step closer to launch."
NASA said engineers reviewed the final steps that would have happened in the final few seconds of the countdown. They plan one final test of the booster hydraulic power units before rolling the rocket back to the pad. The units provide power for the pumps the booster nozzles use for steering the rocket during ascent.
After replacing the hardware responsible for the valve leak, NASA will set a firm launch date for Artemis I, which is slated to send an uncrewed Orion capsule to moon orbit and back again.
If successful, it would set up NASA's Artemis II mission, which would return humans to lunar orbit for the first time since 1972.
The agency's Artemis III mission, which would return humans all the way to the lunar surface is slated to launch no earlier than 2025. NASA has said the mission will include the first woman and first person of color to walk on the moon.
A 25+ year veteran of FLORIDA TODAY, John McCarthy currently oversees the space team and special projects. Support quality local journalism by subscribing to FLORIDA TODAY. You can contact McCarthy at 321-752-5018 or jmccarthy@floridatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA: We will launch SLS to the moon in late August
