NASA Says a Dangerous Fuel Leak Would Cause Artemis 1's SLS Spacecraft to Explode if Not Fixed

Engineers are attempting to correct another issue while NASA's enormous moon rocket waits on its launch site in Florida. The agency decided against launching Artemis I on Saturday, missing the launch window for the second time.

NASA engineers are looking for a solution to the leak. It is unknown when the rocket will be rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Experts warn of the leak's threat if NASA proceeded to launch the spacecraft without making any repairs, even though Click Orlando said NASA is unsure when the rocket would be ready for another launch attempt.

Space Agency Trying to Avoid Exploding The Spacecraft

Engineers could not bring one of the rocket's four core-stage RS-25 engines down to a safe temperature in time for liftoff, leading to the cancellation of the initial attempt.

The issue, according to NASA, was resolved because of a malfunctioning sensor that inaccurately recorded the engine's internal temperature as being considerably higher and further away from flight readiness than it was.

A far more significant hydrogen fuel leak from one of the rocket's core-stage engines was why NASA aborted the second attempt; it required a rollback to rectify.

Months before the planned launch, NASA's moon rocket encountered technical problems.

According to Science Alert, a malfunctioning helium valve and a liquid-hydrogen leak stopped the rocket from being ready for ignition during the wet dress rehearsal in April.

As a result, NASA decided to launch the rocket without doing a complete prelaunch test of the rocket's completed engines out of fear of further delays. Nevertheless, there have been delays.

The failure will make NASA's rising Artemis program budget even more of a target for criticism.

(Photo: Red Huber/Getty Images)
The Artemis 1 Moon rocket with the Orion capsule sits on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center on April 8, 2022, in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

ALSO READ: NASA Scrubs Artemis 1 Yet Again Due to Hydrogen Leak

Space Agency Trying to Avoid Exploding The Spacecraft

What went wrong, how NASA plans to solve the issue, and what it implies for the ambitious goal to send people back to the moon for the first time in 50 years are all explained by MailOnline.

The fuel leak, discovered during the morning tanking of liquid hydrogen and oxygen totaling 730,000 gallons (2.76 million liters), was unrelated to the engine cooling problem that compelled the cancellation of the first launch bid.

According to mission manager Mike Sarafin, it is still too early to determine what caused the leak.

Experts speculate that someone accidentally overpressurized the hydrogen line earlier that morning when they transmitted orders to the faulty valve.

"This was not a manageable leak," Sarafin said in the Daily Mail report.

He added that the escaping hydrogen exceeded flammability limits by two or three times. Hence, the SLS would explode once NASA launched the spacecraft without fixing the leak.

In the efforts to launch the SLS, liquid hydrogen leaks have been a chronic problem, even during "wet dress rehearsals" to simulate completely fueling the rocket and counting down to T-minus 10 seconds but stopping the sequence before ignition.

NASA has performed four of these rehearsals since April, but each rehearsal was cut short, and as a result, neither a wet rehearsal nor a real-world launch attempt has included a full fueling process.

Engineers could not cool down an SLS engine to the proper operating temperature a week ago.

On the £19 billion ($22 billion) rocket, they had also been concerned by what looked to be a break high up, but they later found out it was merely frost buildup.

The engines' subsequent research revealed that a sensor was probably producing incorrect data and that the power units could have flown.

Jim Free, the assistant administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, declared after Saturday's aborted launch that "we will not be launching in this period" because the organization "is not where we intended to be."

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson sought to assuage the disappointment by mentioning that NASA had returned the shuttle to the Vehicle Assembly Building 20 times before its initial flight attempt in 1981.