SLS fuel leak expected to delay Artemis 1 launch in October

NASA's next-generation space launch system likely won't fly in September. After a fuel leak forced the agency to cancel its second attempt to launch Artemis 1, there had been some hope that the mission could start before the end of its current launch window on September 6. It won't.

"We won't be launching during this launch period," Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems development, told a room full of reporters after Saturday morning's events. "It was not a manageable leak," added Artemis mission manager Michael Sarafin, referring to the "quick-disconnect" fitting that caused NASA so much trouble yesterday. Kennedy Space Center ground crew attempted to resolve the issue three times before recommending against it for Saturday's launch.

According to Sarafin, the leak began after one of the fuel lines to the Artemis 1's central thruster suffered a brief and "inadvertent" overpressure. An "errant" manual command from Mission Control triggered the incident. On Saturday, Sarafin said it was too early to know if that was the cause of the fuel leak, but there was enough flammable hydrogen gas near the rocket that it wouldn't have been safe to launch. . "We want to be deliberate and careful before drawing conclusions here, because correlation does not equal causation," he added.

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Whatever the cause of the leak, NASA now needs to replace the non-metallic seal that is supposed to prevent hydrogen from escaping at the quick disconnect. The agency has two options as to how to proceed. It could either replace the seal for Launch Pad 39B or the KSC Vehicle Assembly Building. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

Doing the work on the pad would allow NASA to test the system at cryogenic temperatures. That would give the agency a better idea of ​​how the rocket will perform once it's ready to launch again. However, NASA would need to build an enclosure around the SLS. At the VAB, meanwhile, the building would act as an enclosure but would limit the tests to only ambient temperatures.

Ultimately, the SLS will likely end up at the VAB no matter what since NASA has to test the vehicle's flight termination system batteries every 20 days. The system allows Space Force to destroy the rocket if it flies off course or if something else goes wrong during flight. NASA can only perform these tests in the VAB, and the Space Force recently granted the agency a five-day extension to the usual deadline.

All told, the next first Artemis 1 launch window opens on September 16 and then closes on October 4. This opening includes a potential conflict with another mission. Space X's Crew-5 flight is scheduled to take off on October 3 from Kennedy Space Center. Therefore, NASA is more likely to aim for the next window which opens on October 17 and runs until the end of the month. We'll know more next week when NASA holds another press conference, but NASA Administrator Bill Nelson was adamant that the agency wouldn't try to launch Artemis 1 until it did. feel that the SLS is ready to fly. "We don't pitch until we think it's good," he said. "I see this as part of our space program, which has safety at the top of the list."

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