Artemis I Moon Rocket to Return to Launch Pad 39B in Early June
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are slated to return to launch pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in early June for the next wet dress rehearsal attempt.
Engineers successfully completed work on a number of items observed during the previous wet dress rehearsal test. This includes addressing the liquid hydrogen system leak at the tail service mast umbilical, replacing the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) gaseous helium system check valve and support hardware, modifying the ICPS umbilical purge boots, and confirming there are no impacts to Orion as a result of storms and subsequent water intrusion at the launch pad. The team also updated software to address issues encountered during core stage tanking of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen during previous rehearsal attempts.
The purge boots are not flight hardware, but enclose an area around the ICPS umbilical – the connection between the mobile launcher and the upper stage – to protect it from the natural environment during propellant loading.
Meanwhile the contractor for gaseous nitrogen has completed their repairs to the distribution system that will be used to support the Artemis testing and launch campaign. The repairs and tests ensured the system is ready to support tanking operations. During wet dress rehearsal and launch, teams use gaseous nitrogen to purge the rocket including its umbilical plates and to support other operations.
Engineers also are completing some of the forward work originally scheduled to take place in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) after wet dress rehearsal. This includes opening the Orion crew module hatch and installing some payloads, such as hardware elements for the Callisto technology demonstration, a flight kit locker, and container assemblies for a space biology experiment.
Following completion of a few remaining verifications, teams will retract platforms inside the VAB to prepare SLS and Orion to roll out to pad 39B. Plans call for the next wet dress rehearsal to take place about 14 days after the rocket arrives at the pad.
20 responses to “Artemis I Moon Rocket to Return to Launch Pad 39B in Early June”
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All due respect to people who have invested their efforts into it, but let’s not call this perpetual Senate charade a “Moon rocket.” All evidence points to operational lunar missions being the absolute worst fear of the program’s political designers.
who wants to go back to the Moon? there really is no real support for that. because the costs of landings are massive and the science near nothing. The Pols know how this goes
the first one flies ends up costing about 5-6 billion and you get less than two weeks on the moon…and if we are lucky no disaster and then the American people go “how much does it cost”?
and wow you only do this every other year?
worst case of course you have disaster. all the whole thing is is a spend money effort when the real “goal” is the gateway
“-the whole thing is a spend money effort when the real “goal” is the gateway-“
They set the goal to land and leave and everyone has sticker shock but there is no cheap. Set the goal to land and stay and it will cost the same. Like the Shuttle, which ended up costing the same as the Saturn V per launch. We could have just kept going with Apollo. SLS costs so much because, exactly like the Shuttle, they are trying to go cheap, get it done, and move on. But there is no cheap and no move on. We have to go into space to live there. Only a program like Apollo with the goal of permanently expanding humankind off-world will succeed. And ONLY a program like Space Solar Power as the solution to climate change is going to make such a program happen.
maybe…but I dont think anyone is comfortable that land and stay is safe
I have commented several times before that prepositioning a radiation sanctuary either in Lunar Orbit or on/beneath the surface should have been the plan from the start. But like I just said, when you are trying to go cheap and complete a plan that has a start and finish within a budget, what makes sense goes out the window. Remember the ISS was never meant to just go on and on. But people are invested in so many ways now that it has a life of its own. If it was a Moonbase that would of course be justified but it is not in any way some kind of permanent base with millions of tons of resources at hand. It is essentially a bunch of tin cans flying in circles a couple hundred miles up.
I prefer the idea of a fat workshop in Low Lunar Orbit (LLO) filled with a thousand or more tons of lunar water to start with for several reasons, but there are other options. The ideal is an immense lava tube we could just move into and they possibly exist. However, we know where all the craters are. We pick one the right size, use robots to frame over and cover the top and then bulldoze regolith on top. With a couple trashcan nuclear reactors and some inflatable structures in the crater I would say that is a safe place to stay for a long time. Connect to another crater with a covered over and regolith shielded trench and then more inflatables. And so on.
agree but no one is willing to spend that money
Well….it is possible, at some point, the scientific community is going to have a “don’t look up” intervention and say that at least, at the very least, several billion people are going to die when our fragile civilization begins to unravel due to the accelerating effects of climate change. The DOD already knows this is going to happen and are not hiding it, though they are also not taking action like they should. Too many “important” people have invested in fossil fuels, and they see no way to cash out…..yet.
A couple of experiments validating Space Solar are coming up and if all the weird little coincidences that drive events in history just happen to line up, like they did with Apollo, then it won’t be “someone” willing to spend the money.
It will be everyone.
And not just billions, but trillions from every nation on Earth.
God willing.
Given that lunar comings and goings will shortly be all but entirely in the hands of SpaceX, the “issue” of political support will be of little or no consequence.
SpaceX will do few if any trips to the Moon unless they are paid for by the US government. Musk has no real interest in the Moon other than federal dollars and not enough money to send people to mars.
…Musk has no real interest in the Moon other than federal dollars…
Yup. Musk wants those federal dollars. But he’s also going to be paid handsomely by the Europeans, Japanese, UAE, and who-knows-who else who are gung ho to land on the Moon. Look out Mars…here comes SpaceX.
that will surprise me a lot
Yeah. It will be fun to see how…and if…that happens.
No respect at all. Just lies.
Yes. “Moon rocket” implies that at least some teensy part of it can get all the way to the lunar surface. Alas, not so. SLS is an “NRHO rocket” – and not a very good one.
I was never clear on the rationale for NRHO. It seemed like just another example in the long chain of the “Never Do Anything” creed that Congress is always trying to hammer into the HSF directorate.
The last couple dozen or so SLS articles on the various space websites over the last couple months have generated such creepy and infuriating comments it is almost unbelievable. Incredibly toxic and malicious. And the internet is forever. All the spacex fanboys screaming bloody cost plus murder at the top of their lungs and proclaiming Musk their true and rightful King are duly noted for posterity.
You bet Gary.
Yes, thanks to the Wayback site, your delightful, insightful prose will serve as inspiration into perpetuity.
“…such creepy and infuriating comments it is almost unbelievable. Incredibly toxic and malicious. And the internet is forever”
Mars and other Foolishness
Posted on June 28, 2015 by billgamesh (Gary Church / GaryChurch / Duquesne / RaceBannon / MichaelatNASA / Billgamesh / Bilgamesh / Conway Costigan / Adjure / Richard Seaton / caught you again / SLSFanboy)
Well, I have been banned again for about the 12th time and there seems to be no place that welcomes my comments anymore except the few allowed on SpacePolicy.com. Sad. I cannot use any more fake names because they figure out it is me fairly quickly- I am the only one who is not parroting NewSpace propaganda and regurgitating SpaceX infomercials. NASA announced it is looking for a place to land on Mars……what a farce. And tomorrow on Sunday the 28th June, 2015, SpaceX will once again try and “change history” by landing their hobby rocket on a barge. Every time that piece of junk counts down I pray to God in heaven that it will blow up on the pad. At least my prayers are being answered in regards to part of it landing.
Please God, please, let it blow up again.
https://iceonthemoon.org/au…
I seldom have time to follow links unless directly relevant to current interest of mine. This one was quite informative, thank you. This is an individual incapable of independent thought or changing its mind regardless of evidence. And anger towards those that are capable.
“I pray to God in heaven that it will blow up on the pad. At least my prayers are being answered in regards to part of it landing. Please God, please, let it blow up again.”
Obviously not a spacex fan.
A comment made long ago in hopes that spacex would fail.
The resident sociopath cyberstalking again. And how many spacex fanboys have made similar comments about the SLS? I have lost count. My username is SLSFanboy and this incessant bullying by this individual is F-ing out of control.
I am afraid of se jones. I have repeatedly emailed the editors of these forums expressing my fears over his years of blatant cyberstalking and have also told my friends about him. I criticize spacex and give back the abuse handed me but this is different. I believe se jones is dangerous.
Maybe it is time for the spacex fan club to accept that other views are allowed. Instead of trolling into oblivion anyone who dares blaspheme the Musk Cult, maybe they just need to shut up and let others have their say. The NASA-bashing is un-American, the NewSpace ideology is anti-government, anti-union, anti-democratic, and proto-fascist.