NASA’s Artemis I Completes Wet Dress Rehearsal—Will it Proceed To Launch?

NASA's Artemis I just finished their wet dress rehearsals for the Space Launch System to be used in lunar exploration.

After the Artemis Space Launch System (SLS) was rolled out at NASA's Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, the agency's engineers started testing the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft.

According to EarthSky, the series of tests conducted for the SLS is called the "wet dress rehearsal." After numerous attempts and encountering problems throughout the rocket, the Artemis team became successful in completing the testing earlier, on June 20.

Earlier, at 7:37 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the wet dress rehearsal for Artemis I came to an end at the T-29 second mark in the countdown. During the test that took place today, the team successfully loaded all of the propellant tanks on the Space Launch System rocket for the very first time. They then moved on to the terminal launch countdown, which is the phase of the countdown in which many crucial activities occur in rapid succession.

NASA's Challenge During Testing

NASA reported that they experienced a hydrogen leak. The SLS controllers discovered a hydrogen leak in the quick disconnect that connects an umbilical from the tail service mast on the mobile launcher to the core stage of the rocket earlier in the day while they were working on propellant loading operations.

The Artemis team tried to fix the leak by first heating the quick disconnect and then cooling it back down to realign the seal. However, the leak persisted despite implementing this immediate fix.

According to NASA, to mitigate the problem, the controllers decided to come up with a plan to mask the data associated with the leak. Doing this would take a hold of the ground launch sequencer or launch computer. In a real-life scenario, this would allow the controllers of the team to get as far into the countdown as possible.

The agency stated, "The time required to develop the plan required extended hold time during the countdown activities, but they were able to resume with the final 10 minutes of the countdown, called terminal count."

NASA adds, "During the terminal count, the teams performed several critical operations that must be accomplished for launch, including switching control from the ground launch sequencer to the automated launch sequencer controlled by the rocket's flight software, an important step that the team wanted to accomplish."

Space Launch System's Wet Dress Rehearsal

NASA's latest mission to the lunar surface is called Artemis I. Before building a presence back on the moon, NASA's Artemis program consists of three launches: the Artemis I, Artemis II, and Artemis II.

Before the Artemis I launch, it is vital to test the rocket for its wet dress rehearsals to ensure that every component performs properly. These tests will ensure that all of the technical aspects, as well as the rocket, are functioning properly before the launch of Artemis I.

As previously reported by iTechPost, "NASA stated that before announcing a date for the Artemis I launch, the data gathered from the series of tests of the SLS and Orion needs to be analyzed and considered before setting it to launch."

NASA stated that there will be a media teleconference about the test on June 21 (Tuesday) at 11 a.m.