IT House April 4 news, NASA announced today that it has suspended the last major test of the SLS rocket due to pressure problems preventing technicians from safely loading propellant into the rocket.
NASA announced in an article on the Artemis I live blog that the test, dubbed "a wet dress rehearsal," was initially postponed to Monday, April 4, local time.
NASA explains: "Due to the loss of the ability to pressurize the mobile launch pad, the team has decided to postpone the wet dress rehearsal. Some of the components on the rocket launch pad (the platform that supports the rocket before launch) cannot maintain positive pressure, so NASA technicians cannot "safely" carry out the fuel loading process.
IT House understands that the test was a procedural exercise that NASA had to perform before the SLS launch, including filling the 322-foot rocket with 700,000 gallons of propellant. At a news conference Sunday night, NASA said its team was trying to address the issue on the launch pad and expected to resume tomorrow.
It is worth mentioning that at 5:31:49 local time on April 3, NASA encountered bad weather when testing the SLS space launch system at the Kennedy Space Center. Lightning struck the rocket launch pad of the Artemis 1 lunar mission several times.
Four lightning strikes were struck around Launch Pad 39B at the test site, while NASA's first Space Launch System (SLS) giant rocket was undergoing a three-day "wet dress rehearsal."
At the time of Saturday's lightning strike, the core stage of the Artemis 1 SLS rocket and its Orion spacecraft had been activated, but the rocket's side-mounted solid rocket booster and temporary cryogenic propulsion stage were shut down.
"NASA Lunar Program SLS Test During Lightning Strike, Artemis Rocket in Decent Condition"