13.53
'Engine bleed' causes Artemis 1 launch scrub
Nasa says “an engine bleed that couldn’t be remedied”
was the reason today’s scheduled launch of its Artemis 1 moon mission was
scrubbed.
Engineers
first became aware of the issue overnight as they loaded 2.76m litres of liquid
hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel into the tanks of the giant Space Launch System
rocket.
All four
R-25 engines from the rockets core stage needed to be “conditioned” with
cryogenic propellant to bring them up to the correct temperature for launch,
but one of the four failed to respond as Nasa expected.
The engine
“didn’t get the high accuracy temperature that they were looking for,” launch
control communicator Derrol Nail said, adding that the rocket would remain
fuelled on launchpad 39B at Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre while engineers
gathered data.
“The rocket
is currently in a stable configuration,” he said. “The team was unable to get
past the engine bleed that didn’t show the right temperature and ultimately the
launch director has called a scrub for the day.”
Nail said
the next available launch opportunity would be 12.48pm EDT (5.48pm BST) on
Friday 2 September, but it was far from a certainty Nasa would take that
opportunity.
“We must
wait to see what shakes out from their test data they’re gathering now and the
decision that’s to be made by the launch team about where to go from here,” he
said.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário