NASA’s wet dress rehearsal—a vital check of the company’s Artemis II mission to the moon—hit a snag on Monday.
Engineers had been fueling the mission’s House Launch System (SLS) rocket up with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant and deliberate to provoke a countdown sequence to simulate the launch. However hours into the method, NASA engineers needed to briefly stop the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage of the SLS, which homes the rocket’s essential engines, to analyze and troubleshoot a number of potential leaks.
NASA mentioned it had resumed fueling a short while later. “Engineers will try to finish filling after which start topping off the tank. Ought to that achieve success, they’ll try to handle the hydrogen focus, maintaining it inside acceptable limits throughout core stage hydrogen loading,” the company mentioned in a statement.
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Liquid oxygen (the opposite essential part of the rocket’s gasoline) was nonetheless flowing into the core stage all through the difficulty. As a part of the troubleshooting effort, NASA additionally briefly paused liquid hydrogen loading into the higher stage, which was designed to loft the Orion crew capsule towards its orbital journey across the moon.
Gas leaks additionally plagued the predecessor to Artemis II in testing and held up the launch of that mission, Artemis I, for weeks.
Artemis II will see 4 astronauts fly a 10-day loop across the moon and again to Earth, a journey that may take them farther into area than any human has gone before. If the moist gown rehearsal is a hit, then the mission will launch no sooner than February 8.
Editor’s Be aware (2/2/26): This can be a growing story and will probably be up to date.
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