Photo: Charles Boyer
NASA engineers are poring over data from tests conducted on February 12th as part of the Artemis II vehicle’s pre-flight checkouts. During the tests, operators partially filled the Artemis II core stage liquid hydrogen tank to evaluate newly replaced seals in the propellant loading area.
NASA reported on February 13 that teams ran into snags with ground support equipment that restricted the flow of liquid hydrogen into the rocket. They added that, despite the issue, engineers met several key test objectives and successfully collected data at the core stage interfaces—specifically at the same point in the procedure where a leak occurred during the previous wet dress rehearsal.
In a post on X.com, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, “The confidence test related to the seals we repaired and replaced after WDR-1 provided a great deal of data, and we observed materially lower leak rates compared to prior observations during WDR-1. I would not say something broke that caused the premature end to the test, as much as we observed enough and reached a point where waiting out additional troubleshooting was unnecessary.”
Over the weekend, crews will purge the affected line to restore proper environmental conditions and inspect the ground support equipment. A filter believed to be behind the reduced flow is expected to be replaced.
NASA stated that the Artemis team plan to review all findings before setting a timeline for the next milestone: a second wet dress rehearsal later this month. That full test had been scheduled for next week, now its date — and its effect on the launch date — are unknown. That depends on the review, its outcome, and how long any remediations will take.
Will Artemis II Require A Rollback To The VAB?
On February 4, in a press conference after Artemis II’s first Wet Dress Rehearsal, Dr. Lori Glaze, the deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said that while Artemis II can remain on the launch pad at LC-39B through the March launch window, “There are some batteries with flight termination that will need servicing. But we now have pad access available for Artemis II—that was a lesson learned from Artemis I. There are things we can do servicing out at the pad.”
She added that “We do have other batteries, for example on the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. Those batteries will need servicing at some point. If we go beyond the March time window, we probably would have to roll back to access those batteries.”
April Launch Windows
The good news is that April has some friendly launch times, some during the “golden hour” of late afternoon, with one just after sunset:
Whether those dates will be needed remains to be seen. NASA did not specifically rule out a March date, but the longer the GSE liquid Hydrogen problems persist, the less likely it is to launch during that window.
Jared Issacman’s February 14th Update
