NASA - Artemis Exploration Mission 1 patch.
April 4, 2022
The countdown for the wet dress rehearsal has resumed at 10:52 a.m. EDT and clocks have picked back up at T-6 hours, 40 minutes on the clock (L-7 hours, 10 minutes). A new planned T-0 of 6:02 p.m. has been established.
Image above: NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen at sunrise atop a mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B, Monday, April 4, 2022. Image Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky.
An earlier issue with an outage with the vendor of gaseous nitrogen required for tanking preparations has been resolved. Overnight, teams also resolved the issue with the malfunction of the fans used to provide positive pressure to enclosed areas in the mobile launcher and keep out hazardous gases, and they have a plan for operating the fans to prevent issues from reoccurring. The team was able to successfully bring up and run the primary fan through the night to provide confidence, and has configured the secondary fan to run at 80% capacity to support tanking operations.
At approximately 10 a.m. EDT, the launch director gave the “go” to begin tanking the rocket. Cryogenic loading operations are scheduled to begin with chilling down the liquid oxygen lines for the core stage. Once propellant loading operations begin, liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2) will flow into the into the rocket’s core stage and interim cryogenic propulsion stage tanks and be topped off and replenished as some of cryogenic propellant boils off. The team will also conduct leak checks to ensure propellant loading is proceeding as expected.
Related articles:
NASA ‘Go’ for Artemis I Wet Dress Rehearsal
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/03/nasa-go-for-artemis-i-wet-dress.html
Standing tall: Moon rocket milestone for Artemis
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/03/standing-tall-moon-rocket-milestone-for.html
NASA Readies Rocket for Artemis I Wet Dress Rehearsal
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/03/nasa-readies-rocket-for-artemis-i-wet.html
Related links:
Space Launch System (SLS): https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html
Orion spacecraft: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html
Artemis I: https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-1
Image (mentioned), Text, Credit: NASA.
Best regards, Orbiter.ch
