Tag: fuel
NASA replaces Artemis 1’s leaky fuel seals
NASA has completed a critical repair of its next-generation Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. On Friday, engineers replaced the leaky seal that forced the agency to scrub its most recent attempt to launch Artemis 1. On September 3rd, a fitting on one of the fuel lines to the SLS began leaking hydrogen. Ground crew at Kennedy Space Center tried to troubleshoot the problem three times, only for the leak to persist and force NASA to call off the launch attempt. On Friday, engineers also replaced the seal on a 4-inch hydrogen “bleed line” that was responsible for a smaller leak during an earlier August 29th launch attempt.
Engineers have replaced the seals associated with the hydrogen leak detected during the #Artemis I launch attempt on Sept. 3. The teams will inspect the new seals over the weekend and assess opportunities to launch: https://t.co/dT8A4UEkvdpic.twitter.com/xXzwbYOxMp
— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) September 9, 2022
With the new gaskets in place, NASA plans to conduct a fueling test to verify they’re working as intended. The dry run will see engineers attempt to load the SLS with all 736,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen it would need during a regular flight. NASA hopes to successfully complete that test as early as September 17th. “This demonstration will allow engineers to check the new seals under cryogenic, or supercold, conditions as expected on launch day and before proceeding to the next launch attempt,” the agency said.
On Thursday, NASA announced it was targeting September 23rd for another go at putting Artemis 1 into space, with September 27th as a backup. Whether it can make those dates will depend on next week’s fueling test and a decision from the US Space Force. Flight regulations require that NASA test the battery of Artemis 1’s flight termination system every 20 days. That’s something it can only do within the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building. The Space Force previously granted the agency an extension on the 20-day deadline. NASA has now asked for another waiver.
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NASA’s next-generation Space Launch System likely won’t fly in September. After a fuel leak forced the agency to scrub its second attempt to launch Artemis 1, there had been some hope the mission could get underway before its current launch window ended on September 6th. That won’t be the case.
“We will not be launching in this launch period,” Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems development, told a room full of journalists after the events of Saturday morning. “This was not a manageable leak,” Artemis Mission Manager Michael Sarafin added, referring to the “quick disconnect” fitting that gave NASA so much trouble yesterday. Ground crew at Kennedy Space Center attempted to troubleshoot the issue three times before recommending a “no go” for Saturday’s launch.
According to Sarafin, the leak began after one of the fuel lines to Artemis 1’s core booster went through a brief and “inadvertent” overpressurization. An “errant” manual command from Mission Control triggered the incident. As of Saturday, Sarafin said it was too early to know if that was the cause of the fuel leak, but there was enough flammable hydrogen gas near the rocket that it would not have been safe to launch. “We want to be deliberate and careful about drawing conclusions here, because correlation does not equal causation,” he added.
— Jim Free (@JimFree) September 3, 2022
Whatever caused the leak, NASA now needs to replace the non-metallic gasket that was supposed to prevent hydrogen from escaping at the quick disconnect. The agency has two options as to how to proceed. It could either replace the gasket at Launch Pad 39B or the KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building. Both have advantages and disadvantages.
Doing the work on the pad would allow NASA to test the system at cryogenic temperatures. That would give the agency a better idea of how the rocket will behave once it’s ready to launch again. However, NASA would need to build an enclosure around the SLS. At the VAB, meanwhile, the building would act as the enclosure but would limit testing to ambient temperatures only.
In the end, the SLS will likely end up at the VAB no matter what since NASA needs to test the batteries in the vehicle’s flight termination system every 20 days. The system allows the Space Force to destroy the rocket if it flies off course or something else goes awry during flight. NASA can only conduct that testing in the VAB, and the Space Force recently gave the agency a five-day extension on the usual deadline.
All told, Artemis 1’s next earliest launch window opens on September 16th and then closes on October 4th. That opening includes a potential conflict with another mission. Space X’s Crew-5 flight is scheduled to lift off on October 3rd from Kennedy Space Center. Therefore, NASA is more likely to aim for the subsequent window that opens on October 17th and runs until the end of the month. We’ll know more next week when NASA holds another press conference, but NASA Administrator Bill Nelson was adamant the agency wouldn’t attempt to launch Artemis 1 until it feels the SLS is ready to fly. “We do not launch until we think it’s right,” he said. “I look at this as part of our space program, of which safety is at the top of our list.”
NASA scrubs the launch of its Space Launch System rocket due to fuel leak
NASA cancels second Artemis launch attempt to the moon amid stubborn fuel leak
NASA again called off a launch of its mega moon rocket on Saturday, citing a stubborn fuel leak at the base of the rocket that couldn’t be stemmed after several attempts to seal it off.
Artemis I launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson canceled the launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with about 2.5 hours remaining on the countdown clock.
The launch attempt on Saturday was NASA’s second try to get the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket ever built, and the new Orion spacecraft off the ground. During the agency’s first attempt Monday, Aug. 29, the team unexpectedly encountered several issues, including an engine that appeared not to be chilling properly.
It’s unclear whether the space agency will try again by Tuesday or roll the rocket back to its enormous hangar, the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), for inspections or repairs. Leaving the launchpad now would mean no flight around the moon until October at the earliest, said NASA administrator Bill Nelson. Mission managers will meet Saturday afternoon to decide next steps.
“We’ll go when it’s ready,” Nelson said.
Following the first so-called “scrubbed” launch, mission managers decided to give it another go during the Labor Day weekend. Tourism officials estimated earlier in the week the scheduled launch could draw upward of 200,000 visitors to the area. NASA investigated the engine issue over the days following the first launch attempt and felt confident the problem was an inaccurate sensor in the rocket, not inadequately cooled fuel.
A “scrub” is aeronautics-speak for a waved off spaceflight. In theory, NASA can call off a launch right down to ignition for foul weather, temperature, mechanical failures, or a litany of other reasons. A Space Shuttle launch was once rescheduled because a woodpecker poked over 200 holes in an external fuel tank.
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The launch team encountered a liquid hydrogen leak in a line near the connection between the core stage of the rocket and the ground system at about 7:30 a.m. ET Saturday. Engineers used a few different techniques to try to warm the line, hoping the gap would reseal. But after 3.5 hours of troubleshooting the problem and the leak persisting, they decided to quit.
Artemis I is expected to be the first deep spaceflight of a capsule built for astronauts in about 50 years. According to the plan, Orion will travel more than a quarter-million miles from Earth, including an extra 40,000-mile swing past the moon, on a looping journey to test various orbits.
The space agency had planned to recover Orion from the Pacific Ocean on Oct. 11, a little over five weeks later, but only after the spacecraft trekked a total of 1.3 million miles. NASA hopes to one day use the rocket and spacecraft for astronaut-led missions to the moon and perhaps eventually Mars.
No one was inside the capsule this time, but a successful uncrewed test flight would clear the way for passengers aboard the ship on the next mission, according to NASA.
Victor Glover, a NASA astronaut whose own launch to the International Space Station was scrubbed once in 2020, said the issues with the new rocket don’t faze him. The fact that launch controllers didn’t force the spaceflight under the circumstances gives him confidence in the team.
When discussing today’s launch attempt, Glover said, “I try to focus it not on that hardware failure, but on the success of the team making the call to scrub,” he told Mashable. “My family and I have been in contact. I told them, ‘Hey, we’ll try again. We’ll go when it’s ready.'”
Leaks like the one experienced Saturday are common during the fueling process of a large rocket. In fact, engineers were able to overcome one during the previous launch attempt Monday in a different location of the core stage.
Liquid hydrogen has been NASA’s fuel of choice for decades because it has the lowest molecular weight in existence. That’s ideal for keeping the tanks light for traveling in space. It also happens to burn with extreme intensity.
But those teensy molecules are hard to wrangle, seeking out any crevice or crack to escape. The super-cold temperature of the fuel can cause the materials to contract and shrink, leaving minuscule gaps.
Prior to Saturday’s attempt, Jeremy Parsons, deputy manager of exploration ground systems at Kennedy Space Center, was cautiously optimistic about a successful liftoff. If not Saturday, he believed the space agency would be successful by Tuesday, the end of the launch window for a few weeks.
“If the conditions with weather and the hardware align, we’ll absolutely go, and we have the right team at kind of the right time,” he said during a news briefing on Friday. “Those probabilities go way up if we get two attempts [to lift] off before the end of this window.”
If mission managers decided to haul the rocket back to the hangar, though, that causes new concerns for NASA. Every time the team moves the Statue of Liberty-size tower, there’s a risk for potential damage to billions of dollars-worth of hardware.
“The big thing we want to avoid is rollbacks to the VAB,” John Honeycutt, SLS program manager, said Thursday. “Those are the things that Dr. [John] Blevins, [SLS chief engineer], has told me will put more stress on the vehicle than anything else.”
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