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Tag Archives: megarocket
World’s Largest Hydrogen Tank Will Make It Easier for NASA to Launch SLS Megarocket
Preparations for the crewed Artemis 2 trip to the Moon are in full swing, with NASA rolling-out various fixes, upgrades, and new technologies to support the mission, which could happen as soon as 2024. Among the more exciting developments are a gigantic new hydrogen fuel tank and an updated escape system that harkens back to the Space Shuttle era.
Artemis 2, the sequel to the recently concluded Artemis 1 mission, is launching no earlier than late 2024, but NASA, in an effort to maintain this timeline, is already in go mode. A key difference between the two missions is that astronauts will take part in Artemis 2, requiring some important add-ons and adjustments that weren’t needed for the uncrewed Artemis 1. To that end, teams with Exploration Ground Systems have been hard at work at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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A big frustration of Artemis 1 was getting NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket off the ground for the very first time. Ongoing technical problems and pesky hydrogen leaks required NASA to perform multiple launch attempts, with the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) megarocket finally taking flight on November 16, 2022, on the third attempt. And that doesn’t include the four wet dress rehearsals (or five, should we choose to include the cryogenic tanking test done on September 21). As a further complication, mission planners had to squeeze the launch attempts within a flight schedule dictated by celestial happenings, namely the position of Earth relative to the Moon and Sun.
Easy access to liquid hydrogen—the propellant that powers SLS’s four-engine core stage and single-engine Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS)—would make it considerably easier for the Exploration Ground Systems team to perform back-to-back launch attempts in the likely event of scrubs. I say likely because liquid hydrogen, or LH2, is notoriously difficult to contain.
The new 1.4-million-gallon liquid hydrogen tank, located within Launch Complex 39B, will serve to reduce the time between multiple launch attempts, NASA explained in a statement. Jeremy Parsons, deputy manager of NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems, told reporters late last year that the new hydrogen sphere “will allow us to get more back-to-back launch attempts, which is a huge capability when we’ve got smaller [launch] windows.” Once in operation, it’ll be the largest liquid hydrogen tank in the world, according to the Cryogenic Society of America.
The Exploration Ground Systems program currently has an existing liquid hydrogen tank at launch pad 39B that can hold 850,000 gallons. This tank was constructed during the Apollo missions and was used during the Shuttle era. For Artemis 2 and beyond, “both liquid hydrogen tanks will be in use,” a NASA spokesperson confirmed to Gizmodo today.
The new liquid hydrogen tank will have a capacity of 1.4 million gallons, but with a usable space closer to 1.25 million gallons, the spokesperson clarified. The SLS core stage and ICPS require more than 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen. Filled with 1.25 million gallons of the super-chilled stuff, the new tank will store more than twice the amount of liquid hydrogen required for a single launch, and with some important room to spare, given that a portion boils off on the launch pad. Combined, the two hydrogen tanks will provide a liquid hydrogen storage capacity of 2.1 million gallons. Construction of the new tank began in 2018.
When preparing for an SLS launch, ground teams flow liquid hydrogen from a storage tank to the base of the Mobile Launcher using transfer lines. From there, the service mast umbilical transfers the propellant into the core stage and ICPS tanks. Once the new tank is complete, ground teams will conduct validations tests to “make sure we’re getting the right pressures, flow rates, no issues with manifolding, and things along those lines,” Parsons said.
An emergency egress system terminus area is also under construction at Launch Complex 39B. In the event of an emergency during launch countdown, astronauts can use this system to safely exit the launch pad area. The system, which wasn’t needed for Artemis 1, will be similar to the one used during the Shuttle program, in which astronauts sat in baskets held by cables. It’s kinda like zip lining, but without the fun.
The upgraded system “will enable astronauts to exit Orion at the Crew Access Arm white room through the mobile launcher tower down to the emergency transportation vehicles on the ground and onward to a safe haven,” according to NASA. The new emergency egress system will feature a larger capacity and various upgrades to meet the demands of Artemis 2 and the upcoming Block 1B SLS rocket required for Artemis 4 and future Moon missions.
For Crawler Transporter 2, teams plan to replace the individual shoes, or tread plates, on its two large tracks, in addition to adding new steering cylinders and doing corrosion control work. Ground teams are also in the midst of repairing damage incurred by the Mobile Launcher during the inaugural launch of SLS. This includes busted pipes, fried cameras, and blast doors on the tower’s elevator that got, uh, blasted.
Preparations are also underway for the Artemis 2 Orion crew module, which will actually hold a crew during Artemis 2. Similar to Artemis 1, Orion will venture past the Moon and return home to Earth without any activities planned on the lunar surface. That feat—the first Moonwalk since the Apollo 17 mission of 1972—won’t happen until Artemis 3, currently slated for launch in either 2025 or 2026.
The Artemis 2 Orion capsule will feature hardware not included in Artemis 1, “including normal and emergency communication components, display units, hand controllers, full fidelity side and docking hatches, environmental control and life support subsystems for nitrogen, oxygen, water, and air, as well as waste management, and fire detection and suppression,” according to the space agency. Orion’s heat shield will be added before summertime. As for the rocket’s critically important launch abort system, it’s 90% complete in terms of assembly, integration, and testing.
It seems a bit early to be talking about Artemis 2, but late 2024 isn’t that far off, especially as far as NASA timelines are concerned. The space agency isn’t known for hitting deadlines, so this is all very necessary stuff. NASA also benefited from the tremendous success of Artemis 1, allowing it to set its sights firmly on the next mission.
More: 7 Things We Learned From NASA’s Wildly Successful Artemis 1 Mission
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Watch SpaceX stack Starship megarocket using ‘chopsticks’ (video)
SpaceX’s “chopsticks” have been busy lately, and a new video shows them in action.
The chopsticks are arms attached to “Mechazilla,” the launch tower at Starbase, SpaceX’s facility in South Texas. Mechazilla lifts and lowers Super Heavy boosters and Starship spacecraft — the two elements of SpaceX’s giant, next-generation Starship vehicle — onto Starbase’s orbital launch mount using the chopsticks, as the new video shows.
The video, which SpaceX tweeted out on Friday (Oct. 21), captures the stacking of Ship 24 atop Booster 7 on Thursday (Oct. 20). SpaceX is prepping this duo for the Starship program’s first-ever orbital test flight, which could happen in the next few months if testing goes well.
Video: SpaceX ignites multiple engines on Starship Super Heavy for 1st time
Launch and catch tower stacking Starship at Starbase pic.twitter.com/KOpX8tZMHhOctober 21, 2022
“Launch and catch tower stacking Starship at Starbase,” SpaceX wrote in Friday’s tweet (opens in new tab).
As that note indicates, Mechazilla is envisioned to be a multipurpose structure, hosting Starship touchdowns as well as liftoffs. If all goes according to plan, the giant tower will eventually catch returning Super Heavy vehicles (opens in new tab), using the chopsticks to support the boosters beneath their steering “grid fins,” SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said.
Mechazilla will then place Super Heavy directly onto the orbital launch mount, potentially enabling incredibly short turnaround times for Starship missions, according to Musk. (SpaceX is already known for the frequent reuse of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, but these boosters touch down in landing zones or on ships at sea and then must be transported back to the launch pad.)
Thursday’s stacking of Ship 24 atop Booster 7 was actually a restacking, as the duo were first joined up on Oct. 11. Mechazilla de-stacked them on Oct. 16, presumably so SpaceX could perform some additional tests or maintenance work.
And a fair bit of work remains before Booster 7 and Ship 24 will be ready for their orbital moment. For example, SpaceX has yet to fire up all 33 of Booster 7’s Raptor engines; the company has been performing “static fire” tests with the rocket but so far has ignited a maximum of seven engines simultaneously. And none of the Booster 7 engine tests have occurred with Ship 24 attached.
SpaceX isn’t focusing all of its Starship energies on this particular duo; the company continues to build and test other prototypes as well. For example, SpaceX rolled the Ship 25 vehicle out to Starbase’s suborbital launch pad on Wednesday (Oct. 19), as NASASpaceflight’s Jack Beyer noted (opens in new tab).
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
Tropical Storm Ian Forces NASA to Postpone Launch of Megarocket
Ian, the ninth named tropical storm of the current Atlantic hurricane season, has foiled NASA’s plan to launch the Artemis 1 mission on Tuesday September 27.
As late as Friday afternoon, NASA officials were casually dismissing the Caribbean storm system, but the space agency has since smartly concluded that Tropical Ian, as the system is now called, is something to be concerned about.
In a blog post published this morning, NASA said it’s “foregoing a launch opportunity” on and is “preparing for rollback, while continuing to watch the weather forecast associated” with the tropical storm. The the 321-foot-tall (98-meter) megarocket is currently standing at Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as NASA prepares for the Artemis 1 mission, in which an uncrewed Orion capsule will attempt a trek to the Moon and back.
But while NASA has canceled Tuesday’s inaugural launch, the agency has not yet made a decision about whether it wants to roll the rocket back to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)—a giant hanger that would provide shelter should the storm hit the region. That NASA is even thinking of leaving SLS and Orion on the pad boggles my mind. The entire system—Orion included—cost $50 billion to develop and each launch of the rocket will cost around $4 billion. And with NASA’s perpetual insistence on safety, it’s time for the space agency to practice what it preaches.
SLS can endure 85-mile-per-hour (137-kilometer-per-hour) wind gusts at the pad, while rollback can withstand sustained winds reaching 46 mph (74 kph), as NASA officials explained at a press briefing held yesterday. That’s a relief, but the chance exists that the rocket could be damaged by wind-swept objects. Better for NASA to not take that chance, in my opinion.
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With Tuesday’s launch postponed, teams are now configuring systems in preparation for an eventual rollback; engineers deferred their decision “to allow for additional data gathering and analysis” and will make a decision on Sunday. Should a roll back happen, it would start either late Sunday night or early Monday morning.
That Tropical Storm Ian could reach Kennedy Space Center is a distinct possibility. Projections from NOAA’s National Hurricane Center show potential storm winds reaching the area on Tuesday evening. NASA says it’ll take about two days to roll SLS to the VAB, which doesn’t leave the space agency much time. In addition to sheltering the rocket, NASA will need to take care in ensuring that its employees are likewise safe and able to seek shelter if and when the storm hits.
“The agency is taking a step-wise approach to its decision making process to allow the agency to protect its employees by completing a safe roll in time for them to address the needs of their families while also protecting for the option to press ahead with another launch opportunity in the current window if weather predictions improve,” NASA wrote.
Launch won’t happen on Tuesday, but the Eastern Range, a branch of Space Force that oversees launches from the Florida east coast, issued a waiver yesterday stating that NASA has the option to launch on Sunday October 2. The next launch attempt will be NASA’s third to get SLS and Orion into space, with technical issues resulting in scrubs on August 29 and September 3.
NASA Declares Tanking Test of SLS Megarocket a Success
A demonstration to confirm a repaired hydrogen leak appears to have gone well, with NASA declaring Wednesday’s cryogenic tanking test a success. Engineers still need to review the results, but the space agency could be on track to perform its third launch attempt of its SLS megarocket in just six days—a mission that would officially kick off the Artemis lunar program.
Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson declared a “go” for tanking at 7:30 a.m. (all times Eastern), around 30 minutes after the intended start time. Ground teams began the process of loading more than 700,000 gallons of propellant into the megarocket, beginning with the core stage. Today’s cryogenic tanking test, as it was called, happened as the 321-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket stood at Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The test follows two previous launch attempts, both of which ended in scrubs, for different reasons. The first scrub, on August 29, was the result of a faulty sensor that recorded erroneous engine temperature readings, while the second scrub, on September 3, was the result of a significant hydrogen leak, which NASA subsequently traced to damaged seals at the quick disconnect fitting between a liquid hydrogen fuel line and the core stage. SLS uses a mixture of oxygen and liquid hydrogen, the latter of which has a propensity to leak due to its small atomic stature.
Not willing to attempt a third launch attempt just quite yet, NASA officials decided to run a cryogenic tanking test, the primary objective of which was to “look at the two new seals,” as Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for common exploration systems development at NASA, told reporters on Monday. NASA officials refrained from calling today’s test a wet dress rehearsal, as key wet dress objectives, such as going into the terminal count phase of the countdown and powering the Orion spacecraft and side boosters, were not included in Wednesday’s test.
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For today’s test, a key strategy was for ground teams to employ a “kinder, gentler” approach to tanking. Engineers felt that a slower approach would lessen the chance of thermal shock, as components come into contact with ultra-cold propellants at temperatures reaching -423 degrees Fahrenheit (-217 degrees Celsius). It’s possible that thermal shock, or an unintended over-pressurization, resulted in the hydrogen leak on September 3, but the true cause of the faulty 8-inch seal, which exhibited a possible indentation mark less than 0.01 inches in size, is not yet known.
At around 9:45 a.m., ground teams transitioned from slow fill to fast fill. An hour later, the teams reported a hydrogen leak at the quick disconnect between the rocket and the tail service mast umbilical, in what was an ominous sign. Blackwell-Thompson signed off on the ensuing plan to warm the line and reset the connection point, and the teams were back in business about an hour later. Speaking to Blackwell-Thompson after the test, Derrol Nail, launch commentator for NASA, said, “you could kind of feel the room deflate a bit, but as [the ground teams] got past it, you could feel a certain lifting of the room.”
The tanking moved quickly and smoothly after that, with the completion of the thermal conditioning of the rocket’s four RS-25 engines happening shortly before 1:00 p.m. The teams managed to fully fill the core stage and the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), otherwise known as the upper stage, with propellants. By 3:45 p.m., launch controllers had completed the pre-pressurization test, with de-tanking activities starting shortly thereafter. “All objectives for the Artemis 1 cryogenic demonstration have been met,” tweeted NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems at 4:33 p.m., and the test was declared complete 20 minutes later.
“I think the test went really well,” Blackwell-Thompson told Nail. “We wanted to learn, we wanted to evaluate the [tail service mast umbilicals] under cryogenic conditions.” She said teams were also working with a new loading operation, the so-called kinder, gentler approach, which Blackwell-Thompson described as being “very purposeful.” Ultimately, “all test objectives were accomplished today,” she said.
NASA will need to review today’s test results and decide how to move forward. Ideally, the engineers will like what they saw, setting the stage for launch in just six days. Assuming the test is as much of a success as it appears to be, NASA could launch SLS as early as September 27, with a 70-minute launch window opening at 11:37 a.m. ET. For that to happen, however, the space agency still needs to receive a waiver from the Space Force’s Eastern Range, which manages launches along the Florida east coast. NASA is currently attempting to launch the Artemis 1 mission, in which the SLS rocket will deliver an uncrewed Orion capsule on journey to the Moon and back.
A successful launch would be the start of the Artemis era, in which NASA is seeking a sustainable and sustained presence in the lunar environment. Artemis 1 is a demonstration mission that would set the stage for Artemis 2, in which a crewed Orion spacecraft will attempt a similar journey in late 2024.
NASA Has a New Target Date to Launch SLS Megarocket
After two failed attempts to launch its mega Moon rocket, NASA is planning for a third go at its inaugural Artemis mission. The space agency is now hoping to test the rocket on September 21 and finally launch it to space six days later, with a backup opportunity in early October. That is, if Space Force agrees.
NASA had been aiming to launch the Space Launch System (SLS) on September 23, but the space agency has pushed that back to September 27, and with a backup opportunity available on October 2. The 70-minute launch window on September 27 opens at 11:37 a.m. ET. The 109-minute launch window for the October 2 launch is still under review, but it opens at 2:52 p.m. ET.
These targets are all fine and well, but NASA must first get approval from the U.S. Space Force. The agency filed a request for an extension of the current testing requirement from the Eastern Range, a branch of Space Force that oversees rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Launch permits are issued with time restrictions to ensure the safety of the public, and NASA’s original permit for the SLS launch has expired.
NASA has been providing additional data as requested by the Range, but the space agency is still waiting for the request to be accepted. “The agency is continuing preparations for the cryogenic demonstration test and potential launch opportunities, should the request be approved,” NASA wrote in a blog post on Monday. If NASA fails to get the waiver, it will be forced to return the SLS rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building to inspect and reset batteries associated with the rocket’s launch abort system.
Engineers have been working to fix a hydrogen leak that resulted in a second failed launch attempt on September 3. Over the weekend, the Artemis 1 teams completed their repairs after replacing two seals that resulted in the leak, according to NASA. Later this week, the teams will conduct tests at ambient temperature conditions before attempting the cryogenic tanking demonstration scheduled for September 21. For this test, ground teams will attempt to perform a full tanking of the core stage and the upper stage under the usual ultra-cold conditions.
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“The updated dates represent careful consideration of multiple logistical topics, including the additional value of having more time to prepare for the cryogenic demonstration test, and subsequently more time to prepare for the launch,” NASA wrote. “The dates also allow managers to ensure teams have enough rest and to replenish supplies of cryogenic propellants.”
At the same time, NASA is targeting an October 3 launch of its Crew 5 mission to the International Space Station and is working with SpaceX to figure out whether the Artemis 1 launch could have any impact on the commercial crew flight.
It’s certainly busy at NASA, but we’re hoping to see the SLS rocket fly soon. The liftoff will set the stage for the space agency’s Artemis program, which is scheduled to land astronauts on the Moon no earlier than 2025.
More: Artemis 1: To Boldly Go Where Four RS-25 Engines Have Gone Many Times Before
NASA Opts to Fix SLS Megarocket Hydrogen Leak on Launch Pad
NASA is preparing to replace a faulty seal linked to a hydrogen leak that resulted in the second scrubbed launch attempt of SLS on Saturday. The repairs will happen at the launch pad, which is ideal from a testing perspective, but NASA still needs to cart the jumbo rocket back to the assembly building to meet safety requirements.
Technicians will replace a seal on the quick disconnect, an interface that joins the liquid hydrogen fuel line on the mobile launcher to the Space Launch System core stage, according to a brief NASA statement. The teams will also check plate coverings on other umbilicals to rule out hydrogen leaks at those locations. “With seven main umbilical lines, each line may have multiple connection points,” NASA explained.
NASA is attempting an uncrewed mission to the Moon and back, in preparation for a human lunar landing later this decade. But during the early stages of the launch attempt on September 3, an inadvertent command briefly raised the pressure within the system, possibly damaging some components. An unmanageable hydrogen leak resulted in the scrub—the second in a week. The earlier scrub, on Monday, August 29, was also marred by a hydrogen leak, though engineers were able to resolve it. Ultimately, it was a faulty sensor that doomed the first launch attempt.
The unflown SLS rocket remains in a safe configuration, standing tall on Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA is seeking to launch the Artemis 1 mission, in which the rocket will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a journey around the Moon and back. The first launch period, which ran from August 23 to September 6, has ended, forcing a pause in the action. The space agency must now prepare the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket for the third Artemis 1 launch attempt, the date of which has not yet been announced.
Technicians are planning to set up a temporary enclosure around the base of the rocket to protect the hardware from the Florida weather. A benefit of working directly on the pad is that engineers will be able to test the fix under cryogenic conditions. During launch preparations, liquid hydrogen gets pumped through the system at ultra-cold temperatures reaching -423 degrees Fahrenheit (-253 degrees Celsius). This, plus the added high pressure, has the effect of contracting and warping components, which can lead to unwanted and dangerous leaks, particularly around seals.
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As a propellant, hydrogen is efficient but notoriously difficult to reign in. Hydrogen leaks were an all-too-frequent source of scrubs during the Space Shuttle era, and now SLS, which is likewise powered by a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen mixture, appears to be suffering from the same technical hardship.
Engineers mulled returning SLS to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for the required repairs but opted instead to work on the pad. The VAB would’ve presented a more controlled environment to work in, but without the ability to replicate the desired cryogenic conditions for testing (tests inside the VAB have to be run at ambient temperatures). “Performing the work at the pad also allows teams to gather as much data as possible to understand the cause of the issue,” NASA added.
SLS will likely have to return to the VAB, fix or no fix. The Eastern Range, a branch of the U.S. Space Force, requires periodic certification of the rocket’s flight termination system. NASA already received a waiver that extended certification from 20 to 25 days, but it’s not clear if the space agency will request a second waiver, which would be irregular. The Eastern Range oversees launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and works to ensure the public’s safety.
At a press briefing on Saturday, Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, said “it’s not our decision—it’s the Range’s decision.” He added that a waiver from the Range could keep the rocket on the pad, “but that’s not likely.” So, under the Eastern Range restrictions, and until we hear otherwise from NASA about a second waiver, the rocket must return to the VAB prior to the next launch period.
A third launch attempt in late September or early October remains a distant possibility. The next period opens on September 19 and closes on October 4, with no opportunities to launch on September 29 and 30. For this to work, however, NASA would have to complete its latest fix, run tests, cart SLS back to the VAB for recertification (which involves a very short confidence test), and then cart it back to the launch pad. It’s possible, but ground teams will have to haul ass to make this happen.
Failing this, the third launch period opens on October 17 and closes on October 31, with launch exclusions on October 24, 25, 26, and 28. Two other periods, one in November and one in December, exist within the current calendar year.
There’s still plenty of time for SLS to launch in 2022, but it all depends on how quickly engineers can get a handle on this complex system. SLS is the most powerful rocket that NASA has ever built and is a key component of the space agency’s Artemis program, which seeks a sustained and prolonged human presence at and around the Moon.
More: What to Know About Lunar Gateway, NASA’s Future Moon-Orbiting Space Station.
NASA’s Mega-Rocket Launch Delayed at Least a Month After Engine Leaks : ScienceAlert
The launch of NASA’s Artemis “mega moon rocket” has been pushed out more than a month, likely to mid-October, after Saturday’s (Sept. 3) second launch attempt was canceled because of an engine leak.
The gigantic Artemis 1 rocket – made up of the Orion capsule perched atop the 30-story Space Launch System (SLS) – will be rolled back to the vehicle assembly building, and the next launch window won’t open until at least early October, NASA announced.
A crowd of roughly 400,000 people turned up to see the uncrewed Artemis 1 rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida Saturday.
But as the sun rose over Launch Pad 39B – where the rocket was being loaded with its supercooled liquid hydrogen fuel – an alarm sounded, alerting engineers to a gap in the seal of one of the rocket’s engines through which the fuel was leaking.
Engineers tried and failed to plug the leak three times, NASA said, but they soon realized that no quick fix was at hand.
Related: Lightning strikes Artemis I mission’s ‘Mega Moon rocket’ launch pad during tests
After the launch was called off, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the rocket’s next launch window will open in early October, but because other missions will be prioritized over Artemis 1, the third launch attempt likely will fall in the middle of the month.
The rocket has been preparing to embark on the first of two test journeys that will pave the way for a crewed moon landing as early as 2025, marking humanity’s first trip back to the moon since 1972 and signaling NASA’s intent to establish a long-term presence there.
“We go when it’s ready,” Nelson said. “We don’t go until then, and especially now on a test flight, because we’re going to stress this and test it, and test that heat shield, and make sure it’s right before we put four humans up on the top of it.”
Both Artemis 1 launch attempts have been scrubbed by technical issues.
The first attempt was canceled because engineers were unable to cool one of the rocket’s four core-stage RS-25 engines to a safe temperature in time for liftoff.
NASA declared that it had fixed the problem, which the agency said was caused by a faulty sensor that incorrectly reported the temperature inside the engine as being much higher, and much further from flight-ready, than it actually was.
The cause of the second attempt’s cancellation, a hydrogen fuel leak from one of the rocket’s core-stage engines, was far more serious, requiring a rollback to fix.
The Artemis 1 mission, which will send the Orion capsule as far as 40,000 miles beyond the moon and back, is part of NASA’s larger Artemis program. Artemis 1 will be followed by the Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 missions in 2024 and 2025/2026, respectively.
Artemis 2 will make the same journey as Artemis 1, but with a four-person human crew, and Artemis 3 will send the first woman and the first person of color to land on the moon, on the lunar south pole.
The delay to the first launch will not affect the rest of the program’s schedule, Nelson said.
The technical difficulties for NASA’s moon rocket began months before the scheduled launch.
During the wet dress rehearsal in April, a faulty helium valve and a liquid-hydrogen leak prevented the rocket from being prepared to the point of ignition, Live Science previously reported.
This led NASA, wary of additional delays, to roll out the rocket without a full prelaunch test of the rocket’s assembled engines. But the delays have come nonetheless.
The setback will increase the scrutiny on NASA for the Artemis program’s ballooning price tag.
Since it began in 2017, Artemis has already cost more than US$40 billion to develop and is projected to total US$93 billion by the end of 2025, according to the Office of NASA Inspector General Paul Martin, the space agency’s internal auditor.
“Given our estimate of a US$4.1 billion per-launch cost of the SLS/Orion system for at least the first four Artemis missions, NASA must accelerate its efforts to identify ways to make its Artemis-related programs more affordable,” Martin said in March 1 testimony before the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.
“Otherwise, relying on such an expensive single-use, heavy-lift rocket system will, in our judgment, inhibit, if not derail, NASA’s ability to sustain its long-term human exploration goals of the moon and Mars.”
The manager of the Artemis mission, Mike Sarafin, told reporters that NASA engineers were taking extreme care of the rocket’s launch because of its crucial role in future space operations.
“This is an incredibly hard business,” Sarafin said. “This is an initial test flight of this vehicle. As was said, we’re going to fly when we’re ready. And as part of this initial test flight, we’re learning the vehicle. We’re learning how to operate the vehicle.”
NASA has said the Artemis program is worth the high cost because it will spur technological innovation and be a crucial next step in humanity’s exploration of the cosmos.
“This time we’re going not just to touch down [on the moon] and leave after a few hours or a few days – we’re going back to learn, to live, to work, to explore, to determine is there water; therefore on the [moon’s] south pole that would mean we have rocket fuel, we have a gas station up there,” Nelson told BBC Radio 4.
“This time we’re going to learn how to live in that hostile environment for long periods of time, all with the purpose that we’re going to Mars.”
Assuming NASA irons out the technical kinks, new headaches for the space agency could emerge in the form of weather problems in the Atlantic basin.
After a two-month hiatus, this year’s Atlantic hurricane season has kicked into gear with two new named storms – Danielle and Earl. If more come, the weather will add a fresh dimension of unpredictability to October’s flight.
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This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.
Countdown begins for NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission and maiden flight of SLS megarocket
Countdown clocks began ticking Saturday for the maiden launch of NASA new Space Launch System rocket Monday on a long-awaited mission to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule around the moon and back.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s first female launch director, called her team to their stations in Firing Room 1 at the Kennedy Space Center and began the carefully-scripted 46-hour, 10-minute countdown at 10:23 a.m. EDT.
“At this time, we are not working any significant issues,” she told reporters in a pre-flight news conference. “So I’m happy to report that and everything is proceeding on schedule.”
Spaceflightnow.com
Shortly after the briefing, lightning struck two of the three 600-foot-tall protective towers around the SLS rocket at launch pad 39B. The strike prompted a review of data to make sure no sensitive electrical systems were affected, but initial checks indicated the strikes were “low magnitude.”
If all goes well, engineers working by remote control plan to start pumping 750,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel into the giant SLS rocket’s core stage at 12:18 a.m. EDT Monday, setting the stage for blastoff at 8:33 a.m., the opening of a two-hour window. Forecasters are predicting a 70 percent chance of good weather.
The unpiloted 42-day test flight of the $4.1 billion SLS rocket and Orion crew capsule is a major milestone in NASA’s push to return astronauts to the surface of the moon for long-term exploration and to test equipment and procedures needed for eventual multi-year flights to Mars.
“With the Artemis 1 launch on Monday, NASA is at a historic inflection point, poised to begin the most significant series of science and human exploration missions in over a generation,” said Bhavya Lal, NASA associate administrator for technology, policy and strategy.
“We are making sure that the agency’s architecture for human exploration is grounded in a long-term strategic vision, that of sustained U.S. presence on the moon, Mars and throughout the solar system.”
But mission manager Mike Sarafin cautioned, “This is a test flight. We’re mindful that this is a purposeful stress test of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket. It is a new creation, it is a new rocket and a new spacecraft to send humans to the moon on the very next flight.
“This is something that has not been done in over 50 years and it is incredibly difficult. We will learn a great deal from the Artemis 1 test flight … We understand that there’s a lot of excitement about this, but the team is very focused.”
One question mark going into the countdown is the status of a 4-inch liquid hydrogen quick-disconnect fitting that leaked during a practice countdown and fueling test June 20.
The fitting was repaired after the rocket was hauled back to NASA’s assembly building. But hydrogen leaks typically don’t show up unless the equipment is exposed to cryogenic temperatures — in this case, minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit — and that won’t happen until fueling is underway Monday morning.
If a leak is detected that violates safety standards, the launch will be scrubbed. But Blackwell-Thompson said she is confident the fitting will work normally.
“You don’t really get the full test until you do it at cryogenic conditions,” she said in an interview. “So we believe that we have done everything to correct this issue, and certainly on launch day, as part of our loading, we will know for certain.”
NASA/Kim Shiflett
The primary goals of the Artemis 1 mission are to verify the giant SLS rocket’s performance, to put the Orion crew capsule through its paces and to bring it safely back to Earth, making sure the capsule’s 16.5-foot-wide heat shield can protect returning astronauts from the high-speed heat of re-entry.
An instrumented, spacesuited mannequin, “Moonikin Campos,” and two artificial female torsos will help scientists measure the radiation environment of deep space, along with the vibrations, sound levels, accelerations, temperatures and pressures in the crew cabin throughout the mission.
If the flight goes well, NASA will press ahead with plans to launch four real astronauts on a looping free-return trajectory around the moon in late 2024, followed by a mission to land two astronauts near the moon’s south pole as early as 2025.
That flight will depend in large part on continued funding from Congress, development of new spacesuits for the moonwalkers and SpaceX’s progress developing a moon lander based on the design of its futuristic Starship rocket, which has not yet flown to space.
NASA managers say they’re optimistic, but it’s not yet known how realistic the 2025 landing target might prove to be.
“We’re working as if it is. We have to, otherwise it ends up being an open-ended question that we never reach,” said astronaut Randy Bresnik, who added that SpaceX is “working towards that pace as well.”
“And so that gives great hope that if we’re going to get there, we’ve got the right partner for this first mission,” Bresnik said. “The suits and the Starship, the lunar lander, all go hand in hand. We can’t have one without the other. So we’ll get more clarity in the next few months.”
NASA’s Artemis I mission is about to blast the SLS megarocket toward the Moon
Okay, space fans. The moment is almost here. NASA is about to launch its next-generation rocket for the first time and send it hurtling out beyond the Moon. It’s going to be a wild time, but honestly, there’s been a lot going on here on Earth, too — and if you’re anything like me, you might be in the market for a quick refresher on what exactly is going down when NASA’s next big thing blasts off.
Consider this your SLS cheat sheet as NASA gears up for its big launch on August 29th.
What is SLS?
It stands for Space Launch System.
That seems like a very boring name.
It is. But it is also extremely functional, seeing as it refers to a system for launching things into space.
What kinds of things can SLS launch?
So many things! This version of SLS has four big rocket engines and two solid-state boosters and can carry about 27 metric tons up to the general vicinity of the Moon. That’s more than the space shuttle could carry to low earth orbit but less than the Apollo-era Saturn V rocket could carry to the Moon. Future versions of SLS will be able to haul even more.
Whoa, how will it do that?
It’s going to light up like a 5.75 million-pound firework. Those boosters — the twin white cylinders on either side of the rocket — are 17 stories high and are packed with a solid rocket fuel called polybutadiene acrylonitrile. They burn through six tons of this fuel every second, according to NASA. In case you were wondering what this is in relation to jumbo jets, NASA has you covered. Each one “generates more thrust than 14 four-engine jumbo commercial airliners.” The two boosters will generate 75 percent of the boom that gets the rocket and its cargo off the ground.
But that’s only part of the rocket’s power. There’s also the 212-foot-tall core stage — the big orange part of the rocket. On launch day, it will be packed with 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and 196,000 of liquid oxygen, which will fuel the four engines at the bottom.
All of that fuel and engineering translates to a boatload of power. Within 8.5 minutes of launch, SLS and Orion capsule that it’s carrying will be traveling at speeds of around 17,000 miles per hour.
What is the Orion capsule?
I know, another name. So, SLS will be carrying a spacecraft called Orion. (In pictures, it’s the white part at the top of the rocket.) It is not related in any way to the Orion gaming gadget.
Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge
Orion is designed for missions beyond Earth’s orbit, with potential destinations of the Moon or Mars. It’s got an extremely shiny look that will help it cope with extreme temperatures in space, a next-generation heat shield to cope with reentering the atmosphere, and a launch abort system that could blast astronauts to safety if anything went wrong during launch. In space, it can support four people on a mission for 21 days.
Orion flew to space before in a test flight in 2014. It’s been through a lot of testing since then in preparation for this next flight, which has been delayed many, many times. (More on those delays later.) Back in 2020, it looked like there might be a chance that it would get delayed yet again when some engineers discovered a problem with a power component for the spacecraft. Trying to fix it would have taken months, and they have backup systems available, so they will be flying the spacecraft as-is.
Are there going to be people inside Orion?
Nope. There will be three mannequins strapped inside, which look varying degrees of terrifying. One is named Commander Moonikin Campos, and it will wear one of the flight suits that astronauts will wear on future missions. It will be accompanied by the limbless Helga and Zohar, which will carry radiation detectors to figure out how much radiation astronauts might be exposed to during a trip to the Moon. Zohar will be wearing a vest that can protect against radiation. Helga won’t. Good luck, Helga.
One of the big reasons that there won’t be astronauts on board is that this entire launch is one giant test flight. It’s the first time that the SLS is having its big space debut, and putting people on a rocket before seeing if it can actually work feels like an extremely bad choice. (NASA very briefly considered doing exactly that, then decided against it.) Instead, Artemis I will be all about testing how well Orion and SLS work and pushing them to their limits before people get on board.
What is Artemis I?
Oh boy, yet another name! Artemis I is the mission that SLS and Orion are going on. Its primary goal is to make sure that Orion can work in space and that it can deliver astronauts safely back to Earth after the mission is over. As a bonus, it will fly farther from Earth than any spacecraft designed for humans has ever flown before, reaching a distance of 280,000 miles away from Earth.
During the course of its 42-day mission, it will travel a grand total of about 1.3 million miles, heading out to the Moon, then entering orbit around the Moon for several days before returning back to Earth. The maps of this mission look like an extremely large and very messy figure 8. If the launch goes as planned on August 29th, it should splash back down on Earth on October 10th.
Are there other Artemis missions?
Yep! If all goes well with Artemis I, NASA will move on to Artemis II, which will be the first flight of the SLS / Orion combo with crew on board. It’s also the first crewed mission back to the Moon since the Apollo era, but the astronauts onboard won’t land on the Moon — they’ll just orbit for a while, then return to Earth.
The ultimate goal is for NASA to land the first woman on the Moon during the Artemis III mission, which is still in the works. In August, NASA announced several potential landing sites near the Moon’s South Pole.
Yeah, that’s ringing a bell. How long has this been in the works?
The Artemis program? Since 2019, when then-Vice President Mike Pence announced that NASA was headed back to the Moon and would get there by 2024.
Fun fact! It got its name because in mythology, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo, and there is just a ton of nostalgia for the Apollo missions, for better or for worse.
So are they going to make it back to the Moon by 2024?
Absolutely not. They’re shooting for 2025 at this point, but that’s still pretty ambitious.
What about the SLS project? I feel like I’ve been hearing about that for longer.
You definitely have. Its origins date back to around 2010, when the US was shifting away from the space shuttle and toward other modes of space transportation. Parts of it started out as a project called Constellation that was canceled for being way too expensive. Then it was revived as SLS in 2010, with the goal of launching in 2017. That slipped to 2018 and kept slipping, as the project became notoriously delayed and over budget.
For a full look at the history, check out our story here.
But… they’re ready to go now?
Looks like it! Even though their dress rehearsal was cut short in June due to a hydrogen leak, engineers think that they’ve fixed all last-minute to-do’s for the rocket, and NASA has decided that it is a go for launch.
What else will be on board?
In addition to Helga, Zohar, and Commander Moonikin Campos, there will be a few other science experiments aboard Artemis I. During the mission, the spacecraft will deploy 10 small satellites called CubeSats. Some will map ice on the lunar surface, one will deploy a giant solar sail and head off to an asteroid, and one will attempt to land on the Moon. On board, there will also be a science experiment that will carry yeast where no yeast has gone before in an attempt to study deep-space radiation.
Also inside the capsule will be a plush sheep named Shaun. Also, Snoopy. Both Shaun and Snoopy will serve as zero-gravity indicators, floating around Orion once it reaches microgravity.
When is the SLS launch happening?
August 29th at 8:33AM ET. We’ll see you there!