NASA experts continue to improve the Artemis 1 space vehicle that would take the first diverse crew on the lunar surface. This mission would be the newest moon mission after decades of the first project led by the space agency.
Active Reworks for Artemis 1 Systems on Kennedy Space Center
The Artemis I rocket is ferried atop its mobile launch platform back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 26, 2022. - NASA's Space Launch System rocket is heading back to its assembly building for repairs, pushing the earliest possible launch date for its uncrewed test flight to the Moon to later this summer, officials said on April 25. Since April 1, the space agency has been unsuccessfully attempting a key "wet dress rehearsal" test because it involves loading liquid propellant.
The Artemis repair is currently ongoing at Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building or VAB, Florida. This month's work is focused on investigating further issues that add up to the problems identified last April.
According to a report by NASA Spaceflight, the specified issues were discovered during the series of attempts to carry out the Wet Dress Rehearsals or WDR at the center's LaunchPad 39B alongside the Orion spacecraft and the massive rocket known as the Space Launch System (SLS).
The Exploration Ground System and other launch processes are currently improved by experts from the private technical contractor Jacobs Engineering Group. Parts of their examination are to troubleshoot the connections from the Mobile Launcher to the space vehicle sitting at the VAB.
The team also works with the industrial gas contractor Air Liquide, which provides the gaseous nitrogen (GN2) for the tests and the upcoming Artemis mission's SLS rocket launch.
The GN2 is in line with the factors that need additional developments due to an incident during the April tanking attempt, where the compound had issues after mixing with the selected propellant for the SLS. After modifying the GN2 formula, a new test will be held on May 16 to check whether there are improvements from the upgrades that Air Liquide provided.
The next WDR test in May is still tentative as the schedule would depend on the success of the pile of reworks over various systems involved in the Artemis program.
Next Artemis 1 WDR in May
On April 26, the Crawler-Transporter was able to return the Orion/SLS vehicle. Simultaneously, the Mobile Launcher-1 also returned to VAB's High Bay 3. The activity between Pad 39B and the VAB was already planned months ago, but additional planning suggested that the rollback for Artemis 1 is necessary for pre-launch only.
Further rollbacks are now required to conclude the Wet Dress Rehearsal countdown demonstration tests in recent updates.
A separate issue was also detected in the umbilical structure of the SLS Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage or ICPS. The repairs on this part would push the vessels to stay on the VAB until May.
NASA EGS Program lead vehicle operations manager Cliff Lanham explained that the ICPS purge boot repair is still conceptualized in meetings of the Artemis developers, and additional revamps for its design are expected.
On April 4 and 14, the ICPS was involved in the problems during the valve checks. The helium system serves as the in-space second stage for the SLS and is crucial for the rocket's launch and landing phase.
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