Teams Plan to Replace Artemis I Seal on Launch Pad
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (NASA PR) — After standing down on the Artemis I launch attempt Saturday, Sept. 3 due to a hydrogen leak, teams have decided to replace the seal on an interface, called the quick disconnect, between the liquid hydrogen fuel feed line on the mobile launcher and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket while at the launch pad.
Performing the work at the pad requires technicians to set up an enclosure around the work area to protect the hardware from the weather and other environmental conditions, but enables engineers to test the repair under cryogenic, or supercold, conditions. Performing the work at the pad also allows teams to gather as much data as possible to understand the cause of the issue. Teams may return the rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to perform additional work that does not require use of the cryogenic facilities available only at the pad.
To meet the current requirement by the Eastern Range for the certification on the flight termination system, NASA would need to roll the rocket and spacecraft back to the VAB before the next launch attempt to reset the system’s batteries.
Additionally, teams will also check plate coverings on other umbilical interfaces to ensure there are no leaks present at those locations. With seven main umbilical lines, each line may have multiple connection points.
20 responses to “Teams Plan to Replace Artemis I Seal on Launch Pad”
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They’ll find something else needing a VAB vacation. And another, and another. It’s a rickety piece of junk that they were never allowed to properly test, and endless cycles of fake rollout and perpetual rollback appear to be its intended fate.
They need to roll it to the VAB anyway to replace the batteries on the range termination system before flight. But this should allow them to do a successful wet rehearsal before doing so.
yeap they need to test this and understaand the issue
Jeff Foust is reporting on Twitter that NASA is seeking to get a waiver on the batteries of the FTS so it doesn’t have to return to the VAB. I think that is a bad idea…
Why set limits in the first place if they are to be ignored?
it is the NASA way
With its own stuff, anyway.
pretty much…its how they are
that is a bad idea. there is some “hard stop” that they are working on in terms of not pushing back to the hanger. I will be curious if the range goes for it
they are back to their old habits. waived the srb stacking time, waived a sensor, on the verge of waiving the push back to the VAB number close to the tanking number
Waiving bye-bye one might say.
I’m guessing, then, that the SLS FTS doesn’t chirp like a smoke detector does when its battery is nearly dead?
Likely they will only be able to determine that when they hit the button and nothing happens, then they watch it run out of control towards some populated area and realize that doing the waiver was a bad idea. Kinda like the way the Chinese wiped out a village with one of their launches in the 1990’s.
I suspect the idea that a FTS was a good idea probably came from a couple of WSMR A-4 launches in 1947, one landing just outside of Alamogordo and the next one near Ciudad Juarez after just clearing the El Paso area.
Incidentally SpaceX is also in the process of learning that flame trenches are a good idea since it six Raptor Starship test yesterday caused a major grass fire…
Good one! I must admit. I think SpaceX made them take some risks—so there’s that.
Don’t know about intended, but such a fate is no longer exhibiting much giggle factor.
I for one would not want to be within 10 miles of it when it launches with those waivers.
I warned a few people to not watch through glass windows from 60 miles last times.
At some point they need to let several items get waived and launch it anyway.
Unless it does a RUD on the pad, they will find out a lot.
Yes, the SRBs joints are only good for a year once stacked and they were stacked 20 months ago. Then you have all the cyclings of the fuel tanks starting with the delays in the static fires at Stennis a while ago. Also the Orion has been waiting a while for its ride.
I guess when the stack of waivers is a tall as the rocket they will launch. Pity that the escape tower is inert, it would be a great way to test it if the SLS did go RUD.
I hope they can get the issues fixed on the pad and have a successful launch soon.