NASA Reschedules Artemis I Mega Moon Rocket Test On Monday Due to Safety Concerns Over Bad Weather

Due to bad weather and loss of capacity to pressurize the mobile launcher, NASA has chosen to postpone fueling operations for the Artemis I mega moon rocket wet dress rehearsal.

The agency will have another chance to start fuelling the 322-foot-tall (98-meter-tall) Artemis I rocket stack, including NASA's Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft Monday.

NASA’s Moon Rocket Keeps on Rolling to Launch Complex 39B

(Photo: NASA)
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, with the Orion capsule atop, slowly rolls out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 17, 2022, on its journey to Launch Complex 39B. Carried atop the crawler-transporter 2, NASA’s Moon rocket is venturing out to the launch pad for a wet dress rehearsal ahead of the uncrewed Artemis I launch.

NASA Reschedules Artemis I Mega Moon Rocket Wet Dress Rehearsal

The wet dress rehearsal began on Friday at 5 p.m. ET. However, it was particularly stormy in Cape Canaveral on Saturday. At the time, weather officials predicted a 90% chance of precipitation and an 80% chance of lightning. Both materialized, forcing NASA to push back the test over safety concerns brought about by the bad weather.

Four lightning strikes were detected at Pad 39B, and one was particularly strong. However, according to Space.com, none struck the SLS rocket based on NASA's report, as the pad's lightning protection system diverted them.

During the news conference, Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager for NASA, said that they were aware that weather would be among their "bigger challenges." The lightning strikes caused a four-hour delay. The teams proceeded with the wet dress rehearsal on Sunday when the weather was better.

However, according to a NASA update, the team halted operations on Sunday before loading propellants into the rocket's core stage "due to a loss of capacity to pressurize the mobile launcher." Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson further explained at a press conference on Sunday per CNN that the mobile launcher's Prime and redundant supply fans were not operating correctly and each had different concerns.

The personnel believed the fan issue had nothing to do with the lightning because the weather was great Sunday and it still worked that morning. Since fans guarantee that gases do not build up and produce fire dangers or an increase in hazards, the team pushed back the loading of the propellants for another day.

The crew is continuing to work on the fan problem and hopes to have a solution by this evening. If all goes according to schedule, fueling the rocket will resume at 7 a.m. ET on Monday, and the countdown will begin at 2:40 p.m. ET.

The aim of the wet dress rehearsal, according to Parsons, is to smooth out the problems of a new system before launch day.

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How Well Would the Rehearsal Go?

So, will everything go according to plan? Senior NASA officials felt very optimistic that the wet dress test would go ahead without a hitch, Ars Technica reported.

However, they did admit that this is the first time the complete rocket and spacecraft would be handled and fuelled in tandem with its base systems and the complex software that will oversee it all. So, indeed, things may go wrong, they said.

NASA officials anticipate the launch of the Artemis 1 mission, which will fly an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon, about a week after the test is completed. This test flight is expected to take place in June at the earliest.

Several systems from the space shuttle are used in the SLS rocket. The primary RS-25 engines of the rocket have all flown in space aboard the shuttle. The team will then use the shuttle's solid rocket boosters.

Given the vast new piping, pumps, and valves that control all of the cryogenic fuel being put onto the SLS rocket, Wayne Hale, a former NASA flight director who previously managed the shuttle program, said in the same Ars Technica report that he anticipates some concerns to surface during the test.

It's also possible that the system will have purge gas difficulties, electrical issues, or inadequate radio communication. The goal of a test like this is to find these issues.