NASA fueling test sets stage for Artemis II moonshot mission

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Engineers began loading NASA's Artemis II satellite rocket with much than 750,000 gallons of supercold propellants Monday successful a captious countdown "wet dress" rehearsal to verify the elephantine rocket is leak-free and acceptable to nonstop four astronauts connected a travel astir the satellite arsenic aboriginal arsenic Feb. 8.

The signifier countdown began Saturday evening — two days late due to the fact that of frigid weather on Florida's Space Coast — and aft a gathering Monday greeting to measure the upwind and the team's readiness to proceed, Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson cleared engineers to statesman the remotely-controlled fueling operation.

The countdown was timed for a simulated motorboat astatine 9 p.m. EST. But engineers planned to proceed respective hours past that to tally done respective recycle procedures intended to marque definite the squad is acceptable to grip immoderate problems and delays that mightiness harvest up during a existent countdown.

Depending connected the results of a reappraisal of the fueling trial data, Artemis II commandant Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen could beryllium cleared for motorboat arsenic aboriginal arsenic 11:20 p.m. connected Feb. 8 — Super Bowl Sunday — the archetypal of conscionable 3 days near successful the February motorboat period. If the Space Launch System (SLS) isn't disconnected the crushed by Feb. 11, the formation volition gaffe to aboriginal March.

The SLS, the rocket NASA plans to usage to nonstop Artemis astronauts to the satellite aboard Orion unit capsules, is the astir almighty operational launcher successful the world. It is simply a towering 332-foot-tall rocket powered by 2 strap-on coagulated substance boosters and 4 main engines burning liquid oxygen and hydrogen substance that make 8.8 cardinal pounds of thrust astatine liftoff.

The rocket's archetypal and truthful acold lone ngo came successful 2022 erstwhile it was launched connected an unpiloted trial flight astir the satellite and back. In the run starring up to launch, engineers ran into a assortment of problems ranging from substance leaks to unexpected propellant travel behaviour successful the motorboat pad's plumbing. Launch was delayed for months portion engineers worked to resoluteness the problems.

For the rocket's 2nd launch, aggregate upgrades and improvements person been implemented, and Blackwell-Thompson said she was optimistic the fueling trial would spell well.

"Why bash we deliberation that we'll beryllium successful? It's the lessons that we learned," she said past week.

"Artemis I was the trial flight, and we learned a batch during that campaign, getting to launch," she said. "And the things that we learned comparative to however to spell load this vehicle, however to load LOX (liquid oxygen), however to load hydrogen, person each been rolled into the mode successful which we mean to load the Artemis II vehicle."

The substance loading cognition was expected to beryllium implicit by astir 4:30 p.m. with the tanks successful the halfway and 2nd stages topped disconnected and successful "stable replenish" mode. During an existent satellite motorboat countdown, the completion of fueling would acceptable the signifier for the astronauts to caput for the pad to strap into their Orion capsule.

But nary 1 would beryllium boarding for the fueling test. Wiseman and his crewmates remained successful pre-flight aesculapian quarantine astatine the Johnson Space Center successful Houston and were not expected to alert to Florida until aboriginal this week, aft the formal rehearsal information is assessed.

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