Ok, is this a mis print? Should it be hydrogen not helium? Why would a rocket need a tank of helium?
Well helium balloons float, right? /s
Can be used as pressurant.
Everybody thinks it’s the rockets that lift them but
it’s really the secret tanks of Helium...
No. From the article, “ ... large breach in the cryogenic helium system of the second stage liquid oxygen tank took place.”
Helium is used to pressurize the liquid oxygen (LOX) tanks. If the helium tank fail, it may have damaged the LOX tank, or allowed LOX to leak out through the helium lines.
Helium is used to pressurize the Oxygen tank. It needs some pressure inside the LOX tank to force it into the inlet of the Turbo pump. Helium is used because a combustible gas such as Hydrogen would explode if mixed with Oxygen under pressure and shock waves.
Fill empty voids left from fuel usage.