CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida –
A new leak emerged as NASA fueled its New Moon rocket on Tuesday for a midnight launch, its third attempt to put an empty capsule around the Moon for the first time in 50 years.
In an attempt to tighten the leaking valve, the launch team rushed two technicians and a safety officer to the platform, the so-called red team. The work was considered simple, but dangerous, and rescue workers were on standby.
“It’s a dangerous operation inside the blast hazard area, and the launch team will be tracking every move,” said NASA launch commentator Derrol Nail.
Fuel leaks plagued the first two attempts in late summer, then a pair of hurricanes caused further delays. Although engineers never identified the cause of the hydrogen escape, they altered the fueling process to minimize leaks and expressed confidence that the entire 98-meter rocket tube would remain sealed and intact.
NASA added an hour to the operation to account for the slower filling, vital to reducing pressure in the fuel lines and keeping the seals in place. It appeared to work, but an intermittent hydrogen leak emerged toward the end of the six-hour operation at a new location. That particular leaking valve is on the launch pad, not the rocket, officials stressed, and is needed to replenish liquid hydrogen as it dissipates from the center stage.
The rocket was gassed with nearly 1 million gallons (3.7 million liters) of super-cold hydrogen and oxygen when the last leak occurred. The countdown was advanced as the repair effort began.
NASA expected 15,000 people to jam the Kennedy Space Center for the launch early Wednesday morning, with thousands more lining the beaches and roads outside the gates. The space agency had two hours to lift off the rocket, before stopping until Saturday.
The debut Space Launch System rocket, known as SLS, had three test dummies but no astronauts inside the crew capsule on top, which NASA hoped would put into lunar orbit.
This first test flight was expected to last three weeks and end with a splash in the Pacific. NASA’s top priority for the US$4.1 billion mission is to verify the capsule’s heat shield during re-entry so four astronauts can dock for the next moon landing in 2024. This would be followed by a two-person lunar landing in 2025.
NASA last sent astronauts to the Moon in December 1972, ending the Apollo program.