Fuel leak disrupts NASA’s second moon rocket launch attempt
Cape Canaveral, September 3: NASA's new moon rocket suffered another worrisome leak on Saturday, as the launch team began fueling it for liftoff on a test flight that must go well before astronauts board.
The launch team began loading around 1 million gallons of fuel into the 322-foot rocket, NASA's most powerful ever built, for the second time this week.
The earlier attempt on Monday was thwarted by a faulty engine sensor and leaking fuel.
As the sun rose, an over-pressure alarm sounded, and the tanking operation was briefly paused, but no damage was done, and the effort was restarted, according to NASA's Launch Control.
However, minutes later, hydrogen fuel began to leak from the rocket's engine section near the bottom.
NASA suspended the mission while engineers worked to repair what was thought to be a gap around a seal.
NASA plans to launch the crew capsule atop the rocket around the moon, pushing it to its limits before astronauts take out on their next trip. If the five-week test using dummies goes well, astronauts may be able to fly around the moon in 2024 and settle on it in 2025. The last time humans walked on the moon was 50 years ago.
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Artemis I has been delayed for years, and the project is billions of dollars over budget.
Over the course of 42 days, Artemis I will cover approximately 1.3 million miles. After disconnecting from SLS, the capsule will deploy solar arrays and embark on a multi-day journey to the moon, departing from Earth's orbit in a manoeuvre known as a "trans-lunar injection."
SLS weighs 5.7 million pounds when fully fueled and produces up to 8.8 million pounds of thrust, which is 15% more than the Saturn V rockets of the previous century. SLS employs four liquid-fueled RS-25 engines, which formerly flew on the Space Shuttle before being refurbished and enhanced, as well as two solid rocket boosters.
It's the first mission in NASA's Artemis lunar project, which aims to land astronauts on the moon by the third mission in 2025.
NASA intends to fly Orion as near to the moon's surface as 60 miles before entering a wide orbit around the lunar body. To return, Orion will utilise the moon's gravity to help it establish a course back into Earth's orbit.
Orion is planned to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, where it will be recovered by a team of NASA and Department of Defense personnel.
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-PTC News
