NASA rolled the giant rocket that’s slated to launch four astronauts on a round-the-moon trip back to its garage today to troubleshoot a problem with its helium pressurization system.
The Space Launch System rocket, topped by an Orion crew capsule, returned to the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at about 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT), NASA said. It took more than 10 hours for NASA’s crawler-transporter to make the 4-mile trip from Launch Complex 39B.
The journey was a reversal of the rocket rollout that took place on Jan. 17 in preparation for the launch of NASA’s Artemis 2 mission, which would mark the first crewed flight beyond Earth orbit and around the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
After resolving a liquid hydrogen leak at the launch pad, NASA conducted a successful wet dress rehearsal for liftoff last week. But on the night of Feb. 20, technicians were unable to get helium flowing through the SLS upper stage during a routine operation.
Proper helium flow is essential for pressurizing the Space Launch System’s propellant tanks and purging the engines. Mission managers decided to bring the the rocket back to the VAB to determine what went wrong. Technicians will take the opportunity to replace the batteries on the SLS upper stage, core stage and solid rocket boosters. They’ll also service the rocket’s flight termination system.
Because of the time required for the rollback, troubleshooting and servicing, NASA had to call off plans to attempt liftoff in March. The next available launch dates for Artemis 2 are April 1 and April 3-6.
