Trevor Mahleman
After three attempts to complete a critical test of refueling a Space Launch System rocket, NASA decided to take a break.
Saturday Night Space Agency Announce plans to launch a large SLS rocket from the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center to the Vehicle Assembly Building in the coming days. This is a significant step back for the program, which since April 1 has been trying to complete “practice” tests, in which the missile is refueled and operational within 10 seconds of launch.
The decision comes after three attempts over the past two weeks. Any attempt to refuel was thwarted by one or more technical problems with the missile, mobile launch tower, or ground system providing fuel and gas. In a last-ditch effort, Thursday, April 14, NASA successfully loaded 49 percent primary-stage liquid oxygen fuel tanks and 5 percent liquid hydrogen tanks.
While this is progress, it does not include the more dynamic part of the test, in which the rocket is fully charged and pressurized; The ground and computer systems are put into the final countdown when every variable is closely monitored. NASA hopes to complete this practice test to work around the kinks of a complex launch system so that when the rocket launches later this year for its actual launch, the countdown will continue fairly smoothly.
NASA said its contractors, as well as its agency, will use the next few weeks to address issues that arose during refueling tests as the SLS rocket returned to the large vehicle assembly building. For example, Air Liquide, a supplier of gas nitrogen systems, will increase its capabilities. NASA will also replace a faulty check valve at the top of the rocket, as well as repair a leak in the mobile launch tower’s “secret tail service pylon,” the 10-meter-tall structure that provides missile propulsion and power lines to the runway. .
The space agency’s announcement did not provide any information about the schedule’s effects. It will likely take about a week to prepare the SLS rocket and return it to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Work on the rocket at the site is likely to take at least most of May.
NASA then had to make some tough decisions. You can choose to roll the rocket and the movable launch tower onto the platform a second time and try to complete the wet test drill. Then, following normal procedures, NASA will launch the rocket into its assembly building to arm the Flight Safety System, before launching a third time onto the launch pad for liftoff. It would appear that the earliest launch of the SLS rocket in such a scenario would be in August, but the launch will most likely take place in the fall.
Another option NASA could take is to start testing wet suits and finish them on the platform, then go ahead and roll them out in a few days if it works. In such a scenario, NASA might be able to launch an SLS rocket in June or July. However, this can be risky due to flight safety systems.
During a conference call on Friday, Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson confirmed that there was a 20-day timeline after the flight safety system was armed. (This is the range safety mechanism used by all orbital missiles that destroys the booster if it strays from its path.) Once the system is activated, it will take about a week to make final preparations at the Vehicle Assembly Building and a week to roll onto the launch pad and make preparations at the Vehicle Assembly Building. there. That will leave just a week to test fuel, recycle stuff, and maybe try a shot or two before the 20-day window closes.
In other words, this means that the wet suit test has to be absolutely perfect, and then the launch attempt has to be perfect too. It could also mean that Florida’s summer weather – when there are many thunderstorms and other extreme conditions – has to work together.
Finally, NASA engineers had to balance a number of other factors, such as wear and tear on the rocket, side-mounted reinforcements exposed to the outside, and seemingly infinite age considerations with the hardware. For example, agency officials monitor the health of the fuel in solid rocket boosters, which have been building up for about 16 months, among other things.
Nonetheless, NASA appears confident that it will get past this painful dent from the SLS rocket: a program now 11 years old and in which NASA has invested more than $30 billion in rockets and ground systems now under test.
“I have no doubt that we will finish this pilot campaign, we will listen to the hardware, the data will take us to the next step,” Blackwill Thompson said Friday. “And we will take the right steps, and we will launch this car. I don’t know the exact date, but there’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll complete the test drive, and we’ll be ready to fly.”
–
