"Indeed, this critical test of Artemis II's systems was not smooth sailing: some hours into fueling the rocket, the SLS appeared to be leaking liquid hydrogen from its core stage, which houses its main engines. That caused NASA to temporarily pause loading the rocket's propellant in order to trouble shoot the problem. And later, a valve on the Orion capsule malfunctioned, while engineers also attempted to troubleshoot several dropouts of ground teams' audio communications channels."
"Fuel leaks have plagued the SLS before. Artemis I, the predecessor mission to Artemis II, also suffered from fuel leaks during its wet dress rehearsal and at other points in the lead up to the mission, causing its launch to be delayed by weeks. Artemis II will see four astronauts fly a 10-day loop around the moon and back to Earth, going farther into space than any human has gone before. The mission is currently set to launch no earlier than March."
NASA delayed the Artemis II moon mission to at least March after a wet dress rehearsal revealed multiple system problems. The rehearsal involved fueling the Space Launch System (SLS) and initiating a countdown sequence. Some hours into fueling, the SLS appeared to leak liquid hydrogen from its core stage, prompting engineers to pause propellant loading to troubleshoot. A valve on the Orion crew capsule later malfunctioned, and teams experienced several audio communications dropouts between ground teams. Fuel leaks affected the SLS during Artemis I as well, causing previous launch delays. Artemis II will carry four astronauts on a 10-day lunar loop and return to Earth.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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