Artemis Moon Rocket Wet Dress Rehearsal Faces Delay To At Least July - NASA Engineers

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th April, 2022) The repeatedly delayed and halted wet dress rehearsal of the US Artemis 1 lunar mega-rocket with its Orion upper stage will likely be further delayed to miss its June launch window, NASA engineers admitted at a press conference on Monday.

"I think the earlier June window (for launch) is challenged at this point," NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development Tom Whitmeyer said. "The operations are certainly complicated and we want to make sure we get them right. Some of that is (that) the issues with the rocket were different from what were anticipated."

Artemis Mission Manager Mike Sarafin agreed that the full wet dress rehearsal required weeks before the actual launch would probably not take place before July and might even be delayed until August.

"There is definitely a challenge for the June 6-16 window. The next opportunity is June 29 - July 12. The next opportunity after that is July 26 through August 9. ... We have had to repeat the wet dress rehearsal for a number of reasons.

We have had a number of challenges to overcome. We are not ready to put a pin on the Calendar yet," Sarafin said.

NASA officials said they were rolling the enormous, 365-feet high rocket back into the gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, for at least a week.

"We should have it ready to roll back (to launch Pad 39A for the wet dress rehearsal) next week.(Next) Tuesday {April 26) is the time frame. ... We will do another set of leak checks. We will take care of that upper stage check valve and we will need to work the leak," Flight Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said.

NASA failed a third fuel-loading rehearsal on the unmanned Artemis I moon rocket system last week but as late as Friday, April 15 Artemis Mission Manager Mike Sarafin said the space agency was still thinking of attempting the process for a fourth time as soon as this week. During the third attempt, engineers encountered some issues with the cryogenic loading operations on the hydrogen and liquid oxygen side, he said.�