Third Time and Then Some’s the Charm as NASA Begins Artemis I Tanking Test

The little things have kept NASA’s one big thing from getting to the finish line as the massive rocket for the Artemis I moon mission looks to complete a tanking test needed before it can be queued up for a launch later this summer.

NASA has already had to scrub two attempts at the simulated countdown and filling and draining for the Space Launch System rocket topped with the Orion spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39-B. A third attempt is officially underway today.

The main goal is to fill the core stage and upper stages of the 322-foot-tall rocket with 730,000 gallons of super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Pressure and valve issues related to the mobile launcher on which it sits forced scrubs of NASA’s efforts to complete the test on both April 3 and April 4. Then another pressure issue with a 3-inch valve in a hard-to-reach location in the upper stage of the SLS forced NASA to hold off a planned test this past weekend, shift its goals for the entire test, and attempt to fill only the core stage to its full level with only limited tanking on the upper stages.

Missions managers said the valve can much more easily be checked and replaced when the rocket is rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building after the tanking test, and that the upper stage testing, specifically for the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage powered by one Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10 engine, isn’t entirely necessary before a planned launch as it has already been flight proven on other rockets, and it won’t be used until the SLS has left Earth’s atmosphere.

The roughly 46-hour simulation that will bring the countdown clock down to 0, but not fire up the engines capable of producing 8.8 million pounds of thrust, began on Tuesday, but the final tanking procedure was to have begun this morning.

Once again, a pressure issue caused a delay, but NASA yet again worked around it, fixing the flow of gaseous nitrogen that is used to purge oxygen from the rocket ahead of tanking to make a safer environment.

The countdown clock for the test was delayed, but started up again at 8:47 a.m. with the test ending targeting 3:57 p.m.

The new lunar rocket was rolled out to the pad in March in anticipation of the test. After its expected completion Thursday afternoon, NASA will need about 10 days before it rolls the rocket back to the VAB to further go through data, and then potentially set a launch date this summer.

The next possible windows for launch are from June 6-16, June 29-July 12 and July 26-Aug. 9.

Artemis I is an uncrewed flight that will send Orion farther into space than any other human-rated spacecraft has ever traveled — 280,000 miles away, which is 40,000 miles beyond the moon. The SLS rocket will surpass the power of the Saturn V rockets of the Apollo program, producing 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

The mission could last either four or six weeks when Orion returns to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near the coast of California.

Originally to have launched in 2016, the SLS and Orion hardware have seen numerous cost and production delays, which have had a domino effect on future Artemis missions.

NASA now plans the crewed Artemis II flight, which will take humans in an orbit around the moon without landing, no earlier than May 2024. The Artemis III mission, which would use a Human Landing System, contracted to SpaceX using a version of its Starship spacecraft, will bring two astronauts, including the first woman, to the lunar surface. That mission is now planned for no earlier than 2025.

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