The space agency repaired a leak that fixed the Sept. 3 launch and is now working to verify that the problem is resolved with a propellant loading demonstration by Sept. 21 to be ready for a Sept. 27 launch attempt. “Over the weekend, Artemis I teams completed repair work in the area of ​​a hydrogen leak,” said an update from NASA on Monday. “The demonstration will allow the teams to confirm that the hydrogen leak has been repaired, evaluate updated propellant loading procedures designed to reduce thermal and pressure-related stress on the system, conduct a launch test, and evaluate the pre-compression processes’. The space agency must also obtain special permission from the US Space Force, which oversees rocket launches from Florida. NASA is required to retest the batteries in the SLS rocket’s flight termination system, which destroys the rocket if it veers off course to prevent a threat to the public. This should happen every 25 days and September 27th is outside of that window. The problem for NASA is that testing the batteries requires rolling the SLS up to the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB. That could add several days to the process, and SLS is only certified to make the trip from its hangar to the launch pad so many times, according to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger. “So if they went back to VAB this month and then back to the pad, they would only have one round trip,” Berger tweeted. All of this means that Artemis I mission managers would rather fix the propellant leak, pass a tank test, and blast off with the blessing of the Space Force without having to move the rocket at all. During a news conference Thursday, Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems development, confirmed that the agency has requested a waiver from the Space Force that would allow SLS to remain in place. Now playing: Watch this: NASA explains the Artemis I Rocket Engine
3:34 If the waiver is granted and the tank demonstration goes well, the launch could go ahead on September 27 with a possible fallback date of October 2. The long-awaited debut of the SLS, the Orion crew capsule and the first major mission of the Artemis program had been scrubbed twice earlier, first on August 29 due to engine problems and then on September 3 due to a leak. The mission will see SLS send an uncrewed Orion on a weeks-long flight around the far side of the moon and back for high-speed re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, followed by a launch landing. Artemis 1 is designed to pave the way for the first crewed Orion mission in 2024 and eventually for the return of NASA astronauts to the surface of the moon and then to Mars in the 2030s. The 70-minute launch window on September 27 opens at 8:37 AM. PDT, with Orion returning to Earth on November 5.

This 3D printed Martian habitat could be your new home in space

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