Nasa space shuttle sale5/11/2023 This may allow NASA to keep the vehicle on the pad ahead of the next launch. If the launch team decides it can replace the quick-disconnect hardware at the pad, it may be an option to perform a partial fueling test to determine the integrity of the fix. What comes next depends on what engineers and technicians find on Monday when they inspect the vehicle at the launch pad. Finally at 11:17 am ET, hours behind on their timeline to fuel the rocket, launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson called a halt. Valiantly, the launch team at Kennedy Space Center tried three different times to stanch the leak, all to no avail. But the countdown never got that far.Further Reading The SLS rocket is the worst thing to happen to NASA-but maybe also the best? The launch team planned to ignore the faulty sensor this time around and rely on other instruments to ensure each main engine was properly chilled. The new moon rocket uses the same type of main engines.Įven more of a problem Monday was that a sensor indicated one of the rocket's four engines was too warm, though engineers later verified it actually was cool enough. NASA's space shuttles, now retired, were plagued by hydrogen leaks. Hydrogen molecules are exceedingly small - the smallest in existence - and even the tiniest gap or crevice can provide a way out. Technicians tightened up the fittings over the following days, but Blackwell-Thompson had cautioned that she wouldn't know whether everything was tight until Saturday's fueling. ![]() “This was not a manageable leak,” Sarafin said, adding that the escaping hydrogen exceeded flammability limits by two or three times.ĭuring Monday's attempt, a series of small hydrogen leaks popped up there and elsewhere on the rocket. Mission manager Mike Sarafin told journalists it was too early to tell what caused the leak, but it may have been due to inadvertent over-pressurization of the hydrogen line earlier in the morning when someone sent commands to the wrong valve. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stressed that safety is the top priority, especially on a test flight like this where everyone wants to verify the rocket's systems “before we put four humans up on the top of it.” NASA will work around a high-priority SpaceX astronaut flight to the International Space Station scheduled for early October. With a two-week launch blackout period looming in just a few days, the rocket is now grounded until late September or October. Either way, several weeks of work will be needed, according to officials. ![]() Some of the work and testing may be performed at the pad before the rocket is moved. That was on top of leaks detected during countdown drills earlier in the year.Īfter the latest setback, mission managers decided to haul the rocket off the pad and into the hangar for further repairs and system updates. The previous try on Monday at launching the 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful ever built by NASA, was also troubled by hydrogen leaks, though they were smaller. ![]() The inaugural flight is now off for weeks, if not months. NASA’s new moon rocket sprang another dangerous fuel leak Saturday, forcing launch controllers to call off their second attempt this week to send a crew capsule into lunar orbit with test dummies.
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