NASA's $30 B Moon Rocket Can't Stop Leaking? What SpaceX Knew all along...

Описание: NASA's $30 B Moon Rocket Can't Stop Leaking? What SpaceX Knew all along...
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NASA's $30 B Moon Rocket Can't Stop Leaking? What SpaceX Knew all along...
Oh no! It's happening again. What once plagued Artemis 1 is now repeating itself on Artemis 2.
This mission has just suffered another serious schedule hit after its Wet Dress Rehearsal was officially scrubbed, all because of that infamous fuel leak. A problem that’s haunted NASA for decades, not only on the SLS, but even all the way back to the Space Shuttle era.
So the big question is: why does this issue keep coming back again and again on NASA’s heavy-lift rockets?
Let’s break it all down in today’s episode of Alpha Tech.
NASA's $30 B Moon Rocket Can't Stop Leaking? What SpaceX Knew all along...
The recent Wet Dress Rehearsal for Artemis 2, conducted on February 2, initially looked like it was going according to plan. But in the end, it was scrubbed midway through, a familiar outcome for anyone who’s been following the SLS program for years. Here’s how it unfolded.
Everything started smoothly around L-48 hours, from the evening of January 31 into the morning of February 1. The SLS and Orion had already been looking great at Launch Complex 39B, and teams began powering up the core stage, running electrical system checks, and working through the early milestones exactly as planned. The closeout crew entered the White Room for final inspections, closed and sealed Orion’s hatch, secured the Launch Abort System, and then cleared the pad, all standard procedure.
NASA's $30 B Moon Rocket Can't Stop Leaking? What SpaceX Knew all along...
Then came February 2: tanking day, the most critical phase of the WDR. This is when teams load cryogenic propellants, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, into both the core stage and the ICPS upper stage. The process began with fast fill, and almost immediately, trouble showed up. A liquid hydrogen leak was detected at the tail service mast umbilical interface, the massive umbilical that feeds propellant from the launch pad into the core stage. Hydrogen concentrations around the umbilical exceeded safety limits, forcing multiple pauses in LH2 flow while teams tried to troubleshoot the issue.
NASA turned to the same playbook developed during Artemis I back in 2022, stopping the flow, checking seals, and adjusting pressures. After those interventions, tanking resumed. The core stage made it through fast fill, transitioned into topping to keep the propellant at minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit, and then into replenish mode to maintain stable levels as hydrogen naturally boiled off. The ICPS upper stage tanking proceeded more smoothly. The hydrogen leak never fully disappeared, but it was judged to be within acceptable limits, and the team made the call to press ahead into terminal count.
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