He is again completely ridden and put down: Artemis I. The wet dress rehearsal failed three times earlier this year, but unfortunately a fourth time is added. It was close to success when this dress rehearsal was successful. Unfortunately, after 29 seconds before ‘departure’, NASA had to cancel.
Final rehearsal
However, it is not all dramatic. The most important part of the exercise went well: filling up Artemis I. That is a big refueling that you can do in just three minutes: refueling 2649,78825 liters of cryogenic fuel takes many hours. But that went well, after which the countdown started, which had to be stopped 9 seconds before the supposed departure.
However, things went slightly differently, because 20 seconds before that moment it turned out that there was a hydrogen leak. Despite this, NASA was able to achieve most of its goals. There may have been some minor things within one of those goals that weren’t achieved, the space agency said.
Artemis I
Ultimately, it is unknown whether NASA has all the necessary data, now that the exercise had to be canceled earlier. One thing that didn’t work is to test whether the team managed to keep the fuel warm, something called ‘bleed flow’. That would be too dangerous in combination with the leak.
A lot depends on the mission: Artemis III is the mission where the first black person and the first woman will set foot on the moon. First there is the Artemis I mission and the Artemis II mission in preparation. After all, we haven’t been to the moon in a while. The rocket is launched into the air via the Space Launch System and in total the colossus is enormous: more than 100 meters high.
Kennedy Space Center
It is located at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The first three wet dress rehearsals went wrong for several reasons: initially there was no pressure on the launcher, then there was a cover that turned out to be uncontrollable and all this in the midst of a thunderstorm that also saw lightning strike the 111 meter high device.
The third test was the most dangerous: it turned out that there was a leak that could have caused the 3.7 billion euro colossus to explode completely. That was because liquid hydrogen was released and that is highly flammable. Hydrogen has now been released again and that leak must be repaired in any case before the company proceeds to a real launch. It’s a pity that this happens, because Artemis I should have left long ago.
The next step in the moon mission
The question now is whether NASA will go for a wet dress rehearsal and whether the towering colossus will remain on Kennedy for a while: it takes 11 hours to cover the 6.4 kilometers from the ‘workshop’ to the launch site.
In any case, NASA managed to refuel all that fuel, which is also part of the exercise. In the coming days, the organization will consider the best course of action, depending on how much data it has been able to collect. It is therefore still a big question mark when Artemis I will actually launch.
Laura Jenny
When she’s not typing, she’s traveling around in the wonderful world of entertainment or some cool place in the real world. Mario is the man of her life,…