Inside NASA ’s Struggle to Launch America Back to the Moon

Since Aug. 17, NASA’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) moon rocket has stood silent on pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, towering over the Florida swamps. By any measure it’s a beautiful machine; by any measure it’s a promising machine; and by any measure it’s been a troubled machine—especially over the past two weeks. On Aug. 29 and again on Sept. 3, the rocket’s six engines were supposed to light, generating a record 8.8 million lbs. (4 million kg) of thrust, muscling the hardware stack off the pad and hurling it toward space. Had things gone according to NASA’s plans, the SLS’s Orion crew capsule would be in the early stages of a mission to the moon by now. The space agency’s Artemis program, which aims to have American astronauts back on the lunar surface by 2026, would have officially kicked off. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But that hasn’t happened yet. Both planned launches were scrubbed. The first was called off after being plagued by a handful of problems—the worst of them a faulty sensor that falsely indicated that one of the main engines had failed to be cooled sufficiently for ignition. A lack of proper cooling could have led to the engine bell cracking or the engine itself shutting down. The second was halted by a liquid hydrogen leak that prevented the rocket from being fueled properly. Engineers are now fixing the fuel leak problem on the launch pad, but will likely have to ro...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized feature healthscienceclimate Space Source Type: news