NASA plans to launch an uncrewed Moon mission this year. However, it wants to pave the way for manned lunar voyages, which are planned to be made in the coming years. For this reason, it is conducting tests of the new Space Launch System, known as the Mega Lunar Rocket. But things don’t go as he hoped.
NASA may decide to postpone the Moon mission!
NASA encounters a new problem every day in its tests for the first uncrewed Moon mission. Undoubtedly, it is quite normal that dozens of errors are detected and problems are resolved before the launch. However, due to the difficulties he has experienced in recent days, almost most of them had to interrupt the test.
Actually, NASA says the problems it encounters are not major design problems but rather minor technical glitches. Finally, at the press conference held on Friday, April 15, he stated that they plan to repeat the test, which was interrupted last time, on Thursday, April 21.
This test, in which the rocket rolled towards the launch pad and was filled with liquid fuel, was reconsidered as they should focus on using ground systems to fill the rocket’s main stage tanks.
NASA said in a statement on the subject:
Engineers encountered a liquid hydrogen leak on the tail service mast, which prevented the team from completing the test. Before finishing testing, the teams were able to gather additional data by cooling the lines used to charge the upper stage with fuel. The rocket remains in a safe configuration while crews evaluate next steps.
After this statement, in a status update report made by NASA, he said that the liquid oxygen tank in the main stage was filled almost halfway when the test was canceled and the liquid hydrogen tank was filled to about 5 percent of its capacity. It is stated that the team who saw the leak had to discharge the propellant back from the rocket to find the source of the leak.
At a press conference, NASA’s Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin said the team could retry the test by this Thursday. However, he stated that SpaceX will have to work on a busy schedule at Kennedy Space Center due to ongoing missions such as Crew-4.
What do you think about this issue? Don’t forget to share your feedback with us on the SDN Forum or in the comments!
13419
