NASA is trying to solve a leaking fuel problem with the rocket, called the Space Launch System, or SLS. During the final launch attempt at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, September 3, the rocket developed a large leak while being fueled by supercooled liquid hydrogen.
And while the rocket is still grounded, NASA is looking to fix that problem by repairing and replacing some seals before testing to make sure all leaks are plugged, NASA officials said at a press conference Thursday.
It’s not yet clear how long that will take.
Then there is the issue with certification. The U.S. Space Force, an arm of the military, still oversees all rocket launches from the U.S. East Coast, including NASA’s Florida launch site, and that area is known as the “Eastern Range”.
Range officials are tasked with ensuring that there is no risk to people or property with any attempted launch. And that means East Range also has to give NASA the thumbs up to the rocket’s flight termination system, a system that will essentially destroy the rocket in mid-air if it veers off course and starts heading in a populated direction, it is ready to fly.
This system, however, relies on batteries that, under current regulations, must be recharged at a nearby indoor facility before the new proposed launch dates arrive.
NASA hopes to obtain an exemption from this rule. But it is still unclear when or if that request will be granted. If NASA does not get approval for the waiver, the SLS rocket will have to be pulled from the pad and returned to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building, causing further delays.
“If they decide it’s not the right thing to do, obviously we’ll support that and we’ll pull back and look for our next launch attempt,” Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, told Thursday’s press conference.
“But we’re still going to push with the tank test,” he said, referring to tests NASA plans to run to fix hydrogen leaks while the rocket is still in the pad.
The Space Force Eastern Range said in a statement only that it “will review NASA’s request.” He declined to share details about the weather.
However, on Thursday, NASA provided insight into what has been discovered about the leak problem. The space agency had already disclosed that there was an “inadvertent pressurization of the hydrogen line,” putting it below 60 pounds per square inch of pressure instead of the 20 pounds per square inch they expected, Michael said Sarafin, Artemis mission manager. Saturday.
It’s still unclear if this overpressurization is what caused the leak, but NASA knows why the overpressurization happened in the first place, and there was human error.
“Our management team apologizes [the operator in charge of overseeing the process] because we had made some manual procedure changes between Monday’s attempt and Saturday’s attempt,” Free said. “We practiced it during the week, but they had only had a couple of chances. So as a leadership team, we didn’t put our operators in the best place that we could have, we rely heavily on our credit team.”
This overpressurization is definitely something NASA wants to avoid, according to Free. NASA is looking for a “kinder, smoother loading process, if you will.”
For now, there is still a waiting game and many “ifs” surrounding the timeline for the launch of Artemis I. The ultimate goal of this project is to get the SLS rocket into orbit and deploy the capsule Orion, which is built for astronauts but will fly empty for this test mission. The capsule will orbit the Moon before making the 239,000 mile journey back home.
The Artemis I mission is just the beginning of a program that will aim to return humans to the Moon and eventually land manned missions on Mars. Nelson said the problems during the first two thrusts have not caused any delays in future missions of the Artemis program.
CNN’s Kristin Fisher and Ashley Strickland contributed to this article.