NASA marks a giant leap: Mega moon rocket’s tanks filled

NASA fully loaded its mega moon rocket with propellant for the first time on Monday.

Hundreds of thousands of gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen were loaded into the rocket, marking a major milestone as the agency prepares for an uncrewed mission to the moon. NASA also practiced its countdown procedures as part of this pre-launch test.

The agency did run into a few issues, including a hydrogen leak, and ended its countdown at 29 seconds before “liftoff ” rather than the planned 9 seconds (the engines were never going to ignite as part of this test). Still, NASA officials said the test met most of their objectives. They will evaluate the data before committing to a date for the rocket’s inaugural launch, which is scheduled for no sooner than August, or deciding if they will conduct Monday’s test one more time.

“We’re going to take a little bit of time to step back and look and see what all of it means moving forward,” Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager for NASA, said Tuesday during a news conference. “But we had a very, very successful test.”

The test, called a wet dress rehearsal because propellant is pumped into the rocket, is one of the last tests required before NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft can launch on the uncrewed Artemis I mission around the moon. Artemis I would be followed by a crewed trip around the moon, Artemis II, and then landing the first woman and person of color on the moon no sooner than 2025 with Artemis III.

Monday was NASA’s fourth attempt at using the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center to fill the Space Launch System rocket’s core stage and upper stage with propellant. The rocket and Orion spacecraft, which is sitting atop the rocket, are at Launch Pad 39B.

NASA took three attempts at this test in April, but it ran into various issues and ultimately returned the rocket and spacecraft to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs prior to this fourth attempt. This reprieve also allowed an off-site supplier of gaseous nitrogen to upgrade a facility that caused some of the testing problems.

The vehicles returned to the launch pad earlier this month.

“I’m really proud of the team. We learned some things as part of our prior wet dress attempts, and those lessons were incorporated into our approach (Monday),” said Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson. “And the lessons and the things that we learned (Monday) will be incorporated into our approach going forward for the next time that we load this vehicle.”

The hydrogen leak discovered Monday was different from a leak discovered during a previous wet dress rehearsal. And while the leak prevented the countdown from progressing to T-9 seconds, the NASA team did get to an important step they wanted to accomplish: Turning the countdown over to the rocket’s flight software at T-33 seconds.

“(Monday) put us on a path for Artemis I,” Sarafin said.