NASA administrators preparing a megacoet to fly around the moon said they are not yet ready to announce a launch date after a long weekend of testing that ended Monday evening.
After making repairs to the rocket, the U.S. space agency once again attempted the so-called “wet general test” of its mammoth Space Launch System, or SLS, on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Although officials praised the effort as mostly successful, the test revealed a hydrogen leak and the team was unable to achieve all of its test targets.
Tom Whitmeyer, an associate associate administrator at NASA, used a mixture of metaphors to characterize where this leaves the agency in its quest to resume a meaningful human space exploration program.
“It simply came to our notice then [this test] being pieces of a puzzle and a delicate dance. We’ve gotten over the dance, and now we’re looking at the pieces of the puzzle to decide which pieces we didn’t get, “he said during a call with reporters on Tuesday.” We have a good idea of what the puzzle looks like at this point. ” .
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NASA wants to use the rocket for Artemis I, the first lunar mission in the United States since the Apollo era. The huge 5.75 million-pound rocket will finally send the new Orion spacecraft around the moon, without astronauts for the first time, and then splash into the Pacific Ocean. One of the main purposes of the flight is to show that the capsule can safely re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and hit its target in the water before it carries human passengers.
NASA has not had a rocket of this magnitude for a long time, capable of sending large payloads and people into deep space. Not only is it built to travel to the moon, but it is expected to one day place the first astronauts on Mars.
Officials said they should review the test data to determine when the first mission will be launched. When asked directly if August was still on the table, Whitmeyer said they didn’t know it yet.
The tests were aimed at loading fuel into the rocket’s tanks and countdown to take-off. The plan was to lower the clock to nine seconds, just before the engines normally start, but the computer stopped at 29 seconds.
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NASA administrators did not clearly define the goals that were not achieved. The team will assess what repairs, if any, may occur on the launch pad and whether they need to return the 322-foot rocket to its warehouse, said launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson.
Earlier tests of this spring’s rocket revealed bad valves, faulty fans and leaks. NASA returned the rocket to its storage facility for repair before practice last weekend.
Engineers will now weigh the risks of conducting some additional checks, said John Honeycutt, the rocket manager. But he stressed that regardless of the remaining issues, the public should not worry that the mega lunar rocket is not safe.
“We will have a successful launch or a friction because we already have protection in the system for those targets that we did not meet, in case they do not work properly on the day of the launch,” he said. The unfulfilled goals “are not really about making the vehicle safer. It’s really about,” Can we achieve the window launch goal that is optimal for our lunar mission? “
NASA administrators, however, had one thing clear: they said the Orion spacecraft worked quite well during the tests.