Author Topic: Artemis I Pre-Launch Testing at LC-39B (Leading up to and including all WDR's)  (Read 160013 times)

Offline Orbiter

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2995
  • Florida
  • Liked: 1548
  • Likes Given: 1385
Still in a hold, unless the NASA countdown clock is incorrect.

Credit: Spaceflightnow

KSC Engineer, astronomer, rocket photographer.

Offline Orbiter

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2995
  • Florida
  • Liked: 1548
  • Likes Given: 1385
Countdown timeline is being synced, but the go for cryo loading has been given and they're now into pre-ops.

https://twitter.com/NASAGroundSys/status/1510630176492769284

KSC Engineer, astronomer, rocket photographer.

Offline Orbiter

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2995
  • Florida
  • Liked: 1548
  • Likes Given: 1385
KSC Engineer, astronomer, rocket photographer.

Offline RocketLover0119

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2892
  • Space Geek
  • Tampa, Florida
  • Liked: 6791
  • Likes Given: 1609
"The Starship has landed"

Offline RocketLover0119

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2892
  • Space Geek
  • Tampa, Florida
  • Liked: 6791
  • Likes Given: 1609
"The Starship has landed"

Offline centaurinasa

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12046
  • CETI Alpha V
  • Liked: 8531
  • Likes Given: 5118
« Last Edit: 04/03/2022 04:32 pm by centaurinasa »
To boldly go where no human has gone before !

Offline dsmillman

  • Member
  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1482
  • Liked: 342
  • Likes Given: 27
The latest:

April 03, 2022
MEDIA ADVISORY M22-045

NASA to Provide Update Today on Last Major Artemis Test Before Launch

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 5:30 p.m. EDT today, Sunday, April 3, to discuss the status of the final major test with the agency’s mega Moon rocket and spacecraft at the launch pad ahead of the uncrewed Artemis I lunar mission.

The approximately two-day test, known as the wet dress rehearsal, began Friday, April 1, and was halted Sunday prior to tanking due to loss of ability to pressurize the mobile launcher using two fans. The fans are needed to provide positive pressure to the enclosed areas within the mobile launcher and keep out hazardous gases. Without this capability, technicians are unable to safely proceed with remotely loading the propellants into the rocket’s core stage and interim cryogenic propulsion stage.

The test is designed to demonstrate the ability to conduct a full launch countdown at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39B, including loading and draining cryogenic, or supercold, propellants into the Artemis I rocket. 
Teleconference participants include:

•   Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, NASA Headquarters in Washington
•   Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director, NASA Exploration Ground Systems program, Kennedy

To participate by telephone, media must RSVP to NASA no later than one hour prior to the start of the event to: [email protected].

Through Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone on the way to Mars.

For updates, follow along on NASA’s Artemis blog at:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/
-end-

Offline zubenelgenubi

  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11186
  • Arc to Arcturus, then Spike to Spica
  • Sometimes it feels like Trantor in the time of Hari Seldon
  • Liked: 7405
  • Likes Given: 72501
Any news from the teleconference?
The latest:

April 03, 2022
MEDIA ADVISORY M22-045

NASA to Provide Update Today on Last Major Artemis Test Before Launch

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 5:30 p.m. EDT today, Sunday, April 3, to discuss the status of the final major test with the agency’s mega Moon rocket and spacecraft at the launch pad ahead of the uncrewed Artemis I lunar mission.
Support your local planetarium! (COVID-panic and forward: Now more than ever.) My current avatar is saying "i wants to go uppies!" Yes, there are God-given rights. Do you wish to gainsay the Declaration of Independence?

Offline DaveS

  • Shuttle program observer
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8526
  • Sweden
  • Liked: 1199
  • Likes Given: 65
"For Sardines, space is no problem!"
-1996 Astronaut class slogan

"We're rolling in the wrong direction but for the right reasons"
-USA engineer about the rollback of Discovery prior to the STS-114 Return To Flight mission

Offline gbl

  • Member
  • Posts: 22
  • US
  • Liked: 21
  • Likes Given: 23
Link to the media teleconference:

Offline sdsds

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 7202
  • “With peace and hope for all mankind.”
  • Seattle
  • Liked: 2050
  • Likes Given: 1962
•   Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, NASA Headquarters in Washington
•   Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director, NASA Exploration Ground Systems program, Kennedy

Sarafin: speaking as chair of mission management team (MMT), knew weather would be a challenge, weather officer predicted 80% chance of lightning. They didn't have hail, which was also a possibility. One lightning strike was a "positively charged cloud to ground strike" on a catenary wire. Agreed to "proceed at risk" into tanking while that one was cleared. "A couple of technical issues out at the pad." MMT scrub meeting this afternoon decided to set up for tomorrow. A few issues to work through. "Having a lot of new experiences." The lightning protection system did its job perfectly. Tag team meeting was at 0600. "Confident we're going to get there soon."

Blackwell-Thompson: crew access arm was retracted prior to call to stations. Weather did bring a stop to operations; high wind and potential for lightning. Timeline set back about 4 hours. "Big steel moved" includes engine service platform dropped and pulled back to launch position, side flame deflectors in position, extensible column jacked. 715 730 notified of supply fan issue. Fans located in remote air building along perimeter ... feeds air to ctcr (?), ml, ecs room under pad. Supply fan two had a breaker trip; sent a team in to look. Unable to resolve. Switched to redundant fan and decided to press on. Second fan had a different fault. Did not have remote visibility of that fault. Purpose of pressurization is to prevent hazardous gas intrusion during load. All flight hardware elements will remain powered up except booster. Back to tanking tomorrow. Begin around 7:00 tomorrow morning.

Bill Harwood for Charlie: What are trying to accomplish with two terminal countdown runs? If you had a time crunch and could only do one, which would you do?

Blackwell-Thompson: would like to demonstrate ability to recycle, and validate that timeline and the ability to do it within 2 hour window. Trained with sim but want to validate with flight hardware in a test situation. Priority would be to demonstrate "launch-ready hold" capability.

Esam Aned of ASP: timeline

Jeff Foust: If they can't complete tomorrow, how do they share the range.

Sarafin: If they had loaded cryo they would need to stand down prior to another attempt. If they hadn't loaded cryo [they would deconflict somehow].

Philip Sloss (NSF): question about fan systems.

Blackwell-Thompson: fan runs in two modes, normal and hazardous. on Friday they did test hazardous mode. Had been running several hours in hazardous mode before encountering problem. No reason to think it is related to lightning.

Stephen Clarke (SFN): do the fans supply air or gn2; is the cut-off triggered by human action or pre-programmed.

Blackwell-Thompson: air, not gn2. Two ways to do cut-off. Parameters in flight software will force the cut-off inside of 10 seconds. Backup is manual capability to do the cutoff. 3 different "I-load" (?) parameters protect. Plus, operator with hand poised on the button.
« Last Edit: 04/03/2022 11:49 pm by sdsds »
— 𝐬𝐝𝐒𝐝𝐬 —

Offline cplchanb

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 166
  • Toronto
  • Liked: 103
  • Likes Given: 32
Hopefully this is a case of just replacing the breaker or even the fan and not some more serious. It was working all morning so perhaps something just burnt or shorted out

Offline Overwatchfan123

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 298
  • United Kingdom
    • My YouTube channel
  • Liked: 120
  • Likes Given: 68
Hopefully this is a case of just replacing the breaker or even the fan and not some more serious. It was working all morning so perhaps something just burnt or shorted out
I hope so, too.
I've been a space aficionado since 2008. I love space.
Check out my YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/DarkFalconAnimations

Offline eeergo

Count still not running. Reason unclear at this point (was supposed to pick up half an hour ago).
-DaviD-

Offline eeergo

Reason for the delay given: "outage with the vendor of GN2". MMT ready to restart the count at T-6:40 (L-7:20). Guess it's related to the purging system from yesterday?

https://twitter.com/NASAGroundSys/status/1510956346627268609
-DaviD-

Offline cplchanb

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 166
  • Toronto
  • Liked: 103
  • Likes Given: 32

Offline eeergo

Interesting tidbit about the hardware that caused yesterday's scrub:

https://twitter.com/SpcPlcyOnline/status/1510958816472584192
-DaviD-

Offline Overwatchfan123

  • Full Member
  • **
  • Posts: 298
  • United Kingdom
    • My YouTube channel
  • Liked: 120
  • Likes Given: 68
Link to the media teleconference:

By the way, how did you post the video? It was unlisted.
I've been a space aficionado since 2008. I love space.
Check out my YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/DarkFalconAnimations

Offline gbl

  • Member
  • Posts: 22
  • US
  • Liked: 21
  • Likes Given: 23
Link to the media teleconference:

By the way, how did you post the video? It was unlisted.
It's a link from https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive


 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement Northrop Grumman
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
1