NASA To Hold Press Conference After Third Failed Attempt at Fueling Artemis 1

NASA is holding a media conference on Friday, April 15. This conference comes as the wet dress rehearsals have encountered numerous bumps to completion, and now have failed their third attempt to fuel up the Artemis 1 Space Launch System rocket.

NASA's conference will address concerns about the series of tests conducted with its wet dress rehearsal for the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft at Launch Complex 39B, NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Artemis I mission will be delayed as NASA continues to encounter numerous problems with the wet dress rehearsal. Due to a hydrogen leak, NASA reports that today's wet dress rehearsal will be canceled.

NASA Artemis: SLS Rocket Leaks

NASA recently reported that after discovering a liquid hydrogen leak on the tail service mast umbilical, the engineers were unable to complete the test as planned.

Several teams were able to collect additional data before the test was called off by cooling down the lines that were used to load propellant into the upper stage. The rocket is still in a safe configuration while the teams decide what to do next. NASA's third test attempt began on April 12 with a modified test procedure and ended on April 14 with a successful outcome.

The test was focused on loading propellant into the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket's core stage tanks using ground systems at the Kennedy spaceport, with only a small amount of propellant being loaded into the upper stage.

NASA Exploration Ground System took to Twitter to update the public and briefly stated, "The launch director has given approval for the team to proceed with operations to chilldown the ICPS LH2 lines to collect additional data. Engineers do not plan to load LH2 or LOX into the ICPS tanks."

In addition, they confirmed that the NASA Artemis team will not conduct terminal countdown activities today. The speakers at the conference will be Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, who is the Artemis launch director, and Mike Sarafin, who is the Artemis mission manager at NASA Headquarters.

NASA Artemis: Wet Dress Rehearsal

NASA's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft were just officially positioned last month at Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This means that NASA Artemis is getting closer to starting the lunar mission.

NASA Artemis is divided into three sets of missions: Artemis I, Artemis II, and Artemis III. NASA is currently in the early stages of Artemis I. Before the agency reveals the date of the Artemis I launch, the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft will first be tested for launch preparations. This series of tests is called "wet dress rehearsal."

As previously reported, "The wet dress rehearsal will allow the Artemis team to go through its operations and test the load propellant into the tank of SLS, test a full launch countdown, test the capability to recycle the countdown clock, and drain the tanks to practice the timelines and procedures the team will utilize for launch."

It was first announced that the series of tests for the wet dress rehearsal conducted at the Launch Pad 39B would last two days. However, NASA KSC in Florida needs to accommodate different space flights, which contributed to its delay.

According to CNN, deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development at NASA Headquarters, Tom Whitmeyer, stated that any new rocket that is introduced into a new program of this nature goes through these updates and evaluations to determine how well the rocket is performing overall. Whitmeyer added that's exactly the type of experience the NASA Artemis team is having right now.