NASA has repaired its Artemis 2 rocket, apparently keeping things on track for a possible April launch of the first manned lunar mission in more than 50 years.
Engineers created a solution aimed at restoring consistent helium flow to the upper stage of Artemis 2 Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, agency officials announced in a update on Tuesday (March 3).
The repair work took place inside the huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.
Artemis 2its SLS and Orion the crew capsule has been in VAB since February 25, when it rolled back into the hangar from KSC’s Launch Pad 39B. Just a few days earlier, the Artemis 2 stack completed a wet dress rehearsal, a two-day rehearsal of the procedures leading up to launch.
However, in the aftermath of that test, NASA noticed one interruption of the helium flow in SLS’ upper stage. That was a significant problem, because helium pressurizes the rocket’s propellant tanks. Rollback was the only option, as the affected area of the upper step was not accessible at the pad.
The problem took a potential March launch out of play for Artemis 2, which will send four astronauts on a roughly 10-day flight around the moon. It will be the first manned flight to the lunar area since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The next launch window for Artemis 2 opens in April, with launch opportunities on April 1, 3-6. April and 30 April. And those options apparently continue, thanks to recent work in the VAB.
This work centered on a seal in an interface through which helium flows from ground equipment to the SLS upper stage. That seal prevented the interface, which is known as a quick disconnect.
“The team removed the quick coupler, reassembled the system and began validating the repairs to the upper stage by running a reduced flow rate of helium through the mechanism to ensure the problem was resolved,” NASA officials wrote in Tuesday’s update. “Engineers are assessing what caused the seal to come loose to prevent the problem from recurring.”
The Artemis 2 team uses their VAB time in other ways as well. For example, technicians replace flight batteries on SLS’s core stage, upper stage and solid rocket boosters and charge Orion’s emergency shutdown batteries. They are also “activating a new set of flight termination system batteries prior to end-to-end testing of the system,” NASA officials wrote.
This latest Artemis 2 news follows a bigger announcement – that NASA is restructuring The Artemis program. For example, Artemis 3 will no longer be the first mission in the program to land astronauts on the Moon; it will now be Artemis 4which is targeted to fly in 2028. Artemis 3 will remain in Earth orbit and have a rendezvous between Orion and one or both of the private lunar landers contracted by NASA for the Artemis program.
