The critical test, known as the wet dress rehearsal, simulates each launch step without the rocket leaving the launch site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This process includes loading a supercool propellant, performing a full launch simulation countdown, resetting the countdown clock, and draining the rocket tanks. The results of the wet dress rehearsal will determine when the unpaid Artemis A will be launched on a mission that transcends the moon and returns to Earth. This mission will launch NASA’s Artemis program, which is expected to bring humans back to the Moon and land the first woman and the first colored person on the lunar surface by 2025. Three previous attempts at a wet dress rehearsal in April were unsuccessful, and were completed before the rocket could be fully loaded with propellant due to various leaks. These have since been fixed, says NASA. The NASA team dropped the 322-foot (98-meter) Artemis I rocket stack, including the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft, back to the launch site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 6.
Wet dress rehearsal: What to expect
The wet dress rehearsal started at 5 p.m. ET Saturday with a “call to stations” – when all the mission-related teams arrive on their consoles and report that they are ready to start the test and start a two-day countdown. Preparations over the weekend will set up the Artemis team to begin loading propulsion into the core and upper stages of the rocket. There is currently a live view of the rocket on the NASA website, with intermittent commentary. The chairman of the mission management team gave a “go” to start the catering, but the team is waiting for the launch manager to formally decide when to start. The tank is currently on hold due to a problem identified with the backup nitrogen gas supply. The launch team has already replaced the valve causing the problem. Holding can take up to 90 minutes. A two-hour test window will begin later Monday, with the Artemis team aiming for the first countdown at 2:40 p.m. ET. Initially, team members will go through a countdown to 33 seconds before the start and then stop the cycle. The clock will reset. then the countdown will resume and run up to about 10 seconds before starting. “During the test, the team can hold during the countdown as necessary to verify the conditions before continuing the countdown or extending beyond the test window, if necessary and resources allow.” , according to an update on the NASA website. Previous wet dress rehearsal attempts have already accomplished many goals in preparing the rocket for launch, said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director for NASA’s Ground Systems Exploration Program, during a press conference. “We hope to finish them this time and go through the cryogenic loading work along with the number of terminals,” he said. “Our team is ready to start and we look forward to returning to this test.” The mission team is examining possible launch windows for Artemis I’s mission to its moon journey in late summer: August 23rd to August 29th, September 2nd to September 6th and beyond. Once the Artemis rocket stack completes the liquid general rehearsal, it will return to the Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building to await launch day. There is a long history behind the painstaking testing of new systems before launch, and the Artemis team is experiencing similar experiences to those of the Apollo and shuttle-era teams, including multiple test attempts and delays. “There is not a single person in the team who avoids the responsibility we have to manage ourselves and our contractors and to deliver and deliver means of achieving these flight test goals for (Artemis I) and fulfilling the goals of Artemis I “Jim Free, deputy director of NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission, told a news conference last week.
