NASA officials have decided to replace the plug at the fuel leak point of the rocket used in the Artemis 1 mission at Launch Pad 39B in Florida.
The rocket intended to launch the spacecraft to the Moon in NASA’s Artemis 1 mission remains on the launch pad. Artemis 1 will utilize NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) super rocket to send the uncrewed Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit and back to Earth. NASA had scheduled the rocket launch for September 3, but had to postpone it due to an inability to address a leak of super-cooled liquid hydrogen (LH2) in time.
SLS rocket assembly on the launch pad. (Photo: NASA)
The leak incident occurred at the quick disconnect interface, which connects the main SLS stage to a fueling line from the mobile launch tower. After analyzing the issue for several days, the Artemis 1 engineering team decided to replace the plug on the coupling, according to NASA’s announcement on September 6. The repair work will take place right on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, where the Artemis 1 assembly has remained for the past three weeks.
“Conducting repairs on the launch pad requires technicians to erect a barrier around the work area to protect the hardware from weather and other environmental conditions, allowing engineers to inspect and repair at super-cooled temperatures. Performing repairs at the launch pad also enables them to collect as much data as possible to understand the cause of the issue. The engineering team may bring the rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for further repairs,” NASA stated.
Transporting the rocket back to the VAB may be mandatory regardless of whether the engineering team wants to conduct repairs there. The U.S. Space Force has only granted a 25-day license for the Flight Termination System (FTS) of Artemis 1, which will destroy the rocket if the vehicle strays off course during launch. The deadline is September 19. Requesting a new license requires testing the FTS, a process that can only take place at the VAB. NASA officials noted that they could apply for an extension of the license, allowing Artemis 1 to remain on the launch pad longer.
On September 3, Artemis 1 had to cancel its launch for the second time. The first cancellation occurred on August 29 due to measurements indicating that one of the four engines in the SLS main stage was not cool enough to reach the proper temperature before launch. The Artemis 1 engineering team quickly concluded that this was due to a faulty temperature sensor and decided to reschedule the launch for September 3.
Artemis 1 has two suitable launch windows in the next two months, from September 19 to October 4 and October 17 to 31. Moving back to the VAB almost certainly means that the rocket assembly will not be able to launch during the first time frame.
