A second attempt to fuel NASA’s Artemis February rocket appeared to be successful on Thursday (February 19), potentially putting the mission into orbit for launch as early as early March.
The space agency has summarized the issue artemis 2 The Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) – two days of operational practice leading up to launch – will take place on Thursday evening (February 19th). kennedy space center (KSC) Florida.
WDR is designed to be powered by Artemis 2’s SLS. orion The capsule, ground equipment, and mission team go through their paces to ensure everything is ready for the actual launch.
This launch will send four astronauts – NASA reed weissman, victor glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency‘s Jeremy Hansen — A 10-day trip around the moon and back earth. Artemis 2 will be the first manned spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit since the Apollo program ended in 1972, and NASA’s first manned spaceflight. artemis program.
The only previous Artemis mission, artemis 1, The unmanned Orion was successfully sent into lunar orbit and returned at the end of 2022. That flight is liquid hydrogen leak (LH2) propellant was used during ground testing, and it looked like Artemis 2 could follow a similar path.
NASA terminated Artemis 2’s first WDR on February 2nd. LH2 leak detectionIt emanated from an interface with the tail service mast, part of the SLS’s mobile launch tower that supplies fuel and other resources to the rocket via a line known as an umbilical. The Artemis 1 leak also stemmed from this same issue.
The Artemis 2 team replaced two seals in the area after the first WDR attempt and tested the fix by partially filling the rocket’s tank on February 12th. The seal held then and continued to hold on Thursday. Team members said they were able to fill two stages of the SLS with 730,000 gallons (2.76 million liters) of ultra-cold LH2 and liquid oxygen “without exceeding ground safety limits for hydrogen leakage concentrations.” Latest information from NASA.
The launch team also checked other important WDR boxes on Thursday. For example, they closed the Orion crew module hatch and ensured the capsule’s emergency escape system was secure. They then performed a “terminal count” twice, with the countdown clock reading T-33 seconds, then T-29 seconds.
“During the terminal count, an automated system controls the countdown operation, performs final checks on the flight computer, engine bleed system, and ground support equipment, transitions the rocket to internal power, and advances the countdown to a simulated engine start,” NASA officials wrote in the paper. Another WDR update.
The WDR ended at 10:16 PM ET (3:16 PM Japan time on February 20th) with the completion of the second and final count.
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Not everything went perfectly Thursday. For example, the second final count was paused due to a “voltage abnormality in the booster avionics system.” But passing WDR could keep Artemis 2 on track. next available windowIt runs from March 6th to March 9th and includes March 11th (with subsequent periods opening in early April).
We should know more on Friday. NASA is scheduled to hold a press conference at 11 a.m. ET (16:00 GMT) to discuss the WDR results and future plans for Artemis 2. You can watch it live on Space.com.
Editor’s note: This article was updated on February 19th at 11:15pm ET to state that the WDR has been completed.