NASA Repairs Artemis 2 Rocket, Continues Eyeing April Moon Launch (space.com)
- Reference: 0180901924
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/03/03/2358209/nasa-repairs-artemis-2-rocket-continues-eyeing-april-moon-launch
- Source link: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasa-repairs-artemis-2-rocket-continues-eyeing-april-moon-launch
> The repair work occurred inside the huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Artemis 2's SLS and Orion crew capsule have been in the VAB since Feb. 25, when they rolled back to the hangar from KSC's Launch Pad 39B. Just a few days earlier, the Artemis 2 stack successfully completed a wet dress rehearsal, a two-day-long practice run of the procedures leading up to launch.
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> In the wake of that test, however, NASA noticed an interruption in helium flow in the SLS' upper stage. That was a significant issue, because helium pressurizes the rocket's propellant tanks. Rollback was the only option, as the affected area in the upper stage was not accessible at the pad. The problem took a potential March launch out of play for Artemis 2, which will send four astronauts on a roughly 10-day flight around the moon. It will be the first crewed flight to the lunar neighborhood since Apollo 17 in 1972.
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> The next Artemis 2 launch window opens in April, with liftoff opportunities on April 1, April 3-6 and April 30. And those options apparently remain in play, thanks to recent work in the VAB. That work centered on a seal in an interface through which helium flows from ground equipment into the SLS upper stage. That seal was obstructing the interface, which is known as a quick disconnect.
[1] https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasa-repairs-artemis-2-rocket-continues-eyeing-april-moon-launch
[2] https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/03/03/nasa-repairs-upper-stage-helium-flow-preps-continue-ahead-of-rollout/
Re: (Score:2)
At one time it was the largest building by interior volume in the world. That's probably not true anymore but that's where that comes from.
Re: (Score:2)
When you say "largest building by interior volume" I guess you mean it had the biggest single room with no walls, floors, or support beams interrupting the space. Tho not as tall, Madison Square Garden, built a year before the VAB, seems a far vaster space than the VAB interior. I'm only speaking subjective impressions, but I stand by my disappointed first, and following, impressions. The VAB is overhyped and they ought to get over it. PR is important for NASA, and many of their visitors are from big cities
Re: Huge it ain't (Score:4, Informative)
Your perception in the moment may have been skewed by lack of details to measure scale by. Without the commonplace rows of windows and stories it doesnâ(TM)t look that big. However, it is still the ninth largest building in the world by volume. 3.66 million cubic meters Was eighth only a couple years ago. Curse you Gigafactory.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_buildings
Re: (Score:2)
The VAB has it's own weather systems inside, with clouds.
Pretty damn big.
I hope it doesnt go wrong (Score:5, Funny)
I hope it doesn't go disastrously wrong and they spend $4 billion dollars crashing the entire first two stages, including four $145 million (each) reusable shuttle engines into the sea.
Oh wait, they count that as a success.
Right to repair? (Score:2)
So, NASA has a "right to repair" clause in the contract with the consortium that built the SLS stack?
Or is this just another misleading headline for an article that fails to call out the responsible parties...
talk about overpaid incomptence (Score:2)
we should already have a space station and a moon base instead we have a bunch of rich kids playing at being 'scientists'
we need astronauts not administrators
this is exactly what classism and corruption look like :(
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If I remember right, there's been a couple space stations (international collaborations).
A moon base requires having a thing that can get up there, and after the shuttle era, there wasn't much being launched from KSC/Cape Canaveral until recently... and, they don't want a repeat of Apollo 1 (kind of bad PR, and there's that little thing called funding).
But... we need administrators to get astronauts to take the big risk... the government isn't gonna just write a blank check for NASA without someone worthy/k
Re: (Score:2)
Sadly, those are and were not real space stations, real space stations rotate so they are habitable. A real orbital station would be a docking facality in orbit available to many spacecraft. It would have orbital assembly platforms and it would have an extensible infrastructure and a full time occuptaion with real workers, not some space cowboys. What we have instead is a few space capsules bolted together. It's a start but barely.
For all the money invested, we the public should have so much more already. H
Re: (Score:2)
partisan bs like yours is exactly why none of this is going anywhere
remember, it's one sided people who end up going around in circles
No April 20? (Score:4, Funny)
Starship says "hold my bong".
Re: (Score:2)
> Starship says "hold my bong".
Half-baked management realized the risk was too high after catching half a dozen rocket scientists sucking on a helium “leak”..