NASA tried three times to get through its launch pad dress rehearsal for the Artemis I moon rocket at Kennedy Space Center, but it’s not hanging around for the fourth.
Instead, mission managers announced that they were rolling the massive Space Launch System rocket topped with the Orion capsule on its mobile launcher back to the Vehicle Assembly Building.
The reason give is due to an off-site supplier of gaseous nitrogen that’s needed during the test. NASA uses the piped in nitrogen to push out oxygen during tanking procedures making it less explosive and safer.
The goal since the 322-foot-tall hardware was sent out to Launch Complex 39-B last month was to simulate a countdown while filling the core stage and upper stages with 730,000 gallons of super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
Teams endured a series of pressure and valve issues that caused scrubs on April 3 and April 4 and then again this past Thursday that ended because of a leak found in an umbilical that suppled liquid hydrogen to the core stage.
With the nitrogen supply delay, NASA said it would take advantage to address some of the issues found during the scrubs by rolling the rocket back to the VAB where it plans to replace a faulty upper stage check valve and the leak found on the umbilical.
Mission managers will discuss the decision on a call with media on Monday, including mapping out when it might roll back to the pad to try the test. One option is to perform the tanking test as a leadup to an actual launch date with no need to shuttle it back and forth from the VAB a third time.
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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