NASA encountered several problems while conducting a “wet rehearsal” of Artemis 1, but still managed to mark an important stage by the end of the test. The agency managed to fully fill all the fuel tanks of the Space Launch System for the first time and managed to proceed with the countdown of the terminal. Wet dress rehearsals, as they are called, are tests that simulate a rocket launch without the rocket actually rising. The startup team had to suspend three previous attempts to boot the SLS earlier this year due to various leaks and other issues that had already been fixed.
This experience was not perfect either: NASA has had to stop refueling several times since the rehearsal began on Saturday. Charging was halted for the first time early Monday morning due to a problem with the rocket’s backup supply of nitrogen gas. However, the team managed to repair the nitrogen gas valve and refueling resumed a few hours later. However, as CNN notes, several problems arose just as the team was completing the refueling process on Monday afternoon. They found a hydrogen leak and had to find options to seal it after their first solution didn’t work. In addition, the flare system, which burns excess liquid hydrogen from the rocket, caused a small fire in the grassy area around the launch site.
Eventually, the startup controllers devised a plan to mask the data related to the leak so that it would not trigger a hold on the startup computer. This would not have happened in a real startup scenario, but they wanted to go as far as possible in the countdown to gather the data they needed. They were able to successfully resume the 10-minute final countdown after a long delay and reached T-29 seconds before having to stop the test completely. Initially, the launch team planned to leave the countdown to T-33 seconds before the launch. They then intended to restart the timer and repeat the countdown to about T-9 seconds before launch.
Nevertheless, they successfully performed several critical operations required for the launch during the test, including the transfer of control from the ground launch sequencer to the automated launch sequencer controlled by the missile flight software. NASA will now evaluate the data collected from the test to determine if it can finally set an official launch date for Artemis 1, which will send an Orion drone on a mission to fly around the moon, with the earliest possible date somewhere in August. . The agency will hold a test conference today, June 21, at 11 a.m., and you can watch the stream live on its website.
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