NASA postpones sending people to the Moon after a test malfunction

According to the original plan, the Artemis 2 mission, in which the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion ship take astronauts to space around the Moon and return to Earth after 10 days, will take place on February 8. However, NASA announced a rescheduling after encountering problems during the wet dress rehearsal – a key test before launch.

“Engineers overcame many challenges during the two-day test and achieved many set goals. To give teams time to review data and conduct a second fuel refueling rehearsal, NASA is currently aiming for March as the earliest launch time,” NASA said on February 3.

The refueling rehearsal is a rehearsal to practice the operations that will take place before the official launch. The rehearsal of Artemis 2 lasted 49 hours, starting at the Kennedy Space Center at 8:13 p.m. on January 31 (8:13 a.m. on February 1, Hanoi time). About a day and a half later, the launch team completed many tasks such as launching both stages of the SLS rocket and charging the Orion’s passenger compartment.

Next came the key stage of the rehearsal, including loading more than 2.65 million liters of supercooled liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) fuel for the SLS rocket. This test worried many experts because the Artemis 1 mission also had a liquid hydrogen leak before launch.

Finally, the leak problem continued to occur with Artemis 2. “During the refueling process, engineers spent several hours fixing a junction used to guide cold fuel into the rocket’s core stage, resulting in a delay in the countdown,” NASA explained.

Theo Spacethe incident appeared to be similar to the Artemis 1 leaks, both involving LH2 and occurring at the intersection of the fuel pipeline from the mobile launch tower to the SLS. The launch team worked to fix the problem, refilling the rocket’s LOX and LH2 tanks and maintaining a stable fuel level. However, the leak rate skyrocketed at the end of the countdown, causing NASA to end the exercise with only about 5 minutes left.

In addition, the launch team also encountered some other problems during the rehearsal such as losing the audio connection several times. In addition, NASA said, a valve involved in pressurizing the Orion’s passenger compartment door needed to be torqued, and the final completion of the work took longer than expected.

If the Artemis 2 mission is successful, the crew will make history because no one has flown beyond low Earth orbit since December 1972, when Apollo 17 astronauts returned from the Moon. The Artemis 2 crew includes Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch (NASA) and Jeremy Hanse (Canadian Space Agency). They have been quarantined in Houston since January 21 and are expected to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center on February 3 to prepare for launch. However, due to the delay, they were able to leave the quarantine area and return about two weeks before the new launch date.