Posted on 04/04/2022 10:17:22 PM PDT by BenLurkin
NASA's second attempt to fuel its Artemis 1 moon mission megarocket hit another snag on Monday (April 4) due to a valve issue on ground equipment.
A stuck vent valve high up on the mobile launcher structure supporting the Artemis 1's Space Launch System rocket at Launch Pad 39B of NASA's Kennedy Space Center forced NASA to scrub the Artemis 1 test after fueling began on Monday, agency officials said. The valve is use to relieve pressure from the rocket's core stage during fueling.
Monday's fueling attempt was NASA's second try to fill the core stage of Artemis 1's 322-foot-tall (98 m) SLS rocket with 700,000 gallons (2.6 million liters) of super-chilled liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant in what the agency calls a "wet dress rehearsal." The test, which began April 1, features a full launch countdown rehearsal, including the fueling process.
The vent valve was on the 160-foot (49 meters) level of the mobile launcher, which serves as both a gantry and launch platform for the SLS, according to Parsons. NASA officials said the problem occurred in a panel that controls the valve, leaving technicians unable to open the valve.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Ask Elon Musk what to do. He’s the rocket scientist.
Back to the drawing board.
I would guess that each launching attempt is very costly, whether successful or not.
Maybe they’ll allow a few weeks to pass before try number 3.
No need. Just send someone up a ladder with a can of WD-40.
Valves are a pain. We had one that stuck every time we recovered from a reactor scram. Then there were the other two types that used to peeve me, the ones that leaked and the ones that were going too.
I am not a rocket scientist but I know many
SLS is not a good anything
Not an engineer. Just an old numbers cruncher. But it seems to me it’s impossible to have an expected failure rate of all the mission critical parts of some machine be precisely equal to zero out to however many decimal places you’d like. And the larger and more complicated the machine in question, the more frequently you’re going to see a sudden catastrophic failure of some kind.
So it makes me nervous when they start talking about.. “Let’s build this big complicated rocket ship, put a whole bunch of people on it, and blast it off into outer space.” lol
If oxygen and hydrogen ain’t water it’s an explosion looking for a place to happen. O2 generators always worried the crap outta me.
Challenger space shuttle. Three orings failed. Predicted. Happened. Crew and a school teacher spread all over the Everglades. NASA.
This why nasa is having a wet dress rehearsal to work out any issues.
They need more diversity! Send some trannies to unstuck it. Maybe a few muzzies can help. Trannies and muzzies side by side.
Call the savior of social media lol
They forgot the WD40.
Have all of the engineers involved declared their pronouns?
Rocket wizard actually.
This isn’t the launch attempt yet. This is the dress rehearsal, where they load everything up but don’t actually start the rockets. Finding this kind of issue before the actual launch attempt is what this test is for.
The only NASA sign I saw in Huntsville that even hinted at humor was the one at the liquid hydrogen storage facility: Liquid Hydrogen Storage. No Smoking. Violators will be vaporized.
Oh for cryin out loud...
Hit it with a hammer, it will come loose..
You're right! Let's make sure we get to the important stuff first.
The first time I go to a meeting where we "Go around the room and declare our pronouns" will be the day I quit ANY place I am working. Immediately. Before they finish going around the room.
More delays for Artemis means the FCC and EPA will push off permitting SpaceX testing still further into the future.
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