By: Annabelle Lu
On Thursday, NASA announced that it had finished conducting fueling and countdown tests for its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, clearing the way for a launch in approximately two months.
NASA has been working since 2011 to develop the SLS rocket. It is a super heavy lift launch vehicle designed to aid exploration far into the solar system, beginning with returning astronauts to the moon.
The Space Launch System underwent a “wet dress rehearsal” at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday, June 20th. The rehearsal involved fueling the rocket with over 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen in order to simulate an entire countdown. This week’s test marked NASA’s fourth attempt at the run-through.
While NASA completed most of the wet dress rehearsal on Monday, they encountered a setback when the SLS countdown reached T-29 seconds. The discovery of a hydrogen leak within the spacecraft forced the agency’s team to cut the experiment short.
However, NASA was pleased with the produced results. “It was a very successful day, and we accomplished a majority of the objectives that we had not completed in the prior tests,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, director of the Artemis launch.
Despite the incompletion of the wet dress rehearsal, NASA has procured enough data to conclude the testing campaign and move forward with their first-ever SLS rocket launch attempt.
“NASA will set a specific target launch date after replacing hardware associated with the leak,” the agency revealed in a press release. It is predicted that the first launch window will fall between August 23rd and September 6th.
The SLS rocket and its Orion crew capsule are a part of NASA’s Artemis program. The goal of the initial launch, known as Artemis I, is to send the Orion capsule into orbit around the moon without passengers. Artemis II is expected to follow in 2024 with the launching of four astronauts into orbit within Orion; depending on the success of previous missions, an astronaut moon landing could be a reality as soon as 2025.
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