Tuesday, March 26

Scrubbed: Second launch attempt of Artemis 1 canceled after leak detected


The second launch attempt of Artemis 1 from Kennedy Space Center on Saturday was unfortunately unsuccessful. According to NASA, a hydrogen leak was detected in the supply side of the 8-inch quick disconnect while attempting to transfer fuel to the rocket. The hydrogen leak was discovered about 7 a.m. and multiple different tactics were tried to address the issue. Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and her team tried to plug Saturday’s leak by stopping and restarting the flow of super-cold liquid hydrogen in hopes of removing the gap around a seal in the supply line. They tried that twice, in fact, and also flushed helium through the line. But the leak persisted. Eventually, engineers told officials that their recommendation was that the launch should be scrubbed. Blackwell-Thompson finally halted the countdown after three to four hours of futile effort, around 11:15 a.m.The next launch window is Monday, Sept. 5 at 5:12 p.m. WESH 2 is awaiting further information from NASA.Both Monday and Tuesday are available dates, but if the issue calls for a rollback to the VAB, then the next available date would be in October. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson addressed this possibility following the launch cancelation, saying that scrubs are common.The issue Saturday was different than the one that scrubbed the launch on Monday.The issue that halted the launch on Monday was a sensor reading saying that the engine wasn’t cold enough.“We had some sensors that didn’t tell us what we thought we would do and we did the right thing by standing down with that uncertainty on Monday, but we have confirmed that we did have good flow through those engines. We know we can chill those engines. We are ready to proceed that way. We’ve analyzed and the teams are ready to support launch attempts on Saturday,” John Blevins, Space Launch System chief engineer, had said earlier in the week.When the launch does take place, the rocket will launch without astronauts, orbiting the moon before coming back to earth. The flight is paving the way for future launches that will send astronauts to the moon and beyond.

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The second launch attempt of Artemis 1 from Kennedy Space Center on Saturday was unfortunately unsuccessful.

According to NASA, a hydrogen leak was detected in the supply side of the 8-inch quick disconnect while attempting to transfer fuel to the rocket.

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The hydrogen leak was discovered about 7 a.m. and multiple different tactics were tried to address the issue.

Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and her team tried to plug Saturday’s leak by stopping and restarting the flow of super-cold liquid hydrogen in hopes of removing the gap around a seal in the supply line. They tried that twice, in fact, and also flushed helium through the line. But the leak persisted.

Eventually, engineers told officials that their recommendation was that the launch should be scrubbed. Blackwell-Thompson finally halted the countdown after three to four hours of futile effort, around 11:15 a.m.

The next launch window is Monday, Sept. 5 at 5:12 p.m. WESH 2 is awaiting further information from NASA.

Both Monday and Tuesday are available dates, but if the issue calls for a rollback to the VAB, then the next available date would be in October.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson addressed this possibility following the launch cancelation, saying that scrubs are common.

The issue Saturday was different than the one that scrubbed the launch on Monday.

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The issue that halted the launch on Monday was a sensor reading saying that the engine wasn’t cold enough.

“We had some sensors that didn’t tell us what we thought we would do and we did the right thing by standing down with that uncertainty on Monday, but we have confirmed that we did have good flow through those engines. We know we can chill those engines. We are ready to proceed that way. We’ve analyzed and the teams are ready to support launch attempts on Saturday,” John Blevins, Space Launch System chief engineer, had said earlier in the week.

When the launch does take place, the rocket will launch without astronauts, orbiting the moon before coming back to earth. The flight is paving the way for future launches that will send astronauts to the moon and beyond.

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