Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer

Zerohedge

It only took the fourth attempt for NASA to complete a partial countdown for its huge new moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), scheduled to launch later this year.

SLS wrapped up a 50-hour launch simulation known as a “wet dress rehearsal” on Monday evening at the launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, after several failed attempts in April, according to NYTimes.

SLS has never flown and is the rocket that will power NASA’s Artemis program to send astronauts back to the moon.

Monday’s rehearsal concentrated on filling SLS’ fuel tanks. Multiple attempts to fuel the rocket in April ended wet dress rehearsals early. Problems that occurred during the last countdown rehearsals were resolved, but a new leak emerged in a quick disconnect point connecting cables from the mobile launch platform to the SLS.

Besides the new leak, the launch countdown for the 322-foot tall rocket stopped at T-29 seconds, just shy of the nine seconds typically before engines ignite.

“I think it was a very successful day and again accomplished a majority of the objectives,” Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the launch director, told reporters on Tuesday.

Thomas Whitmeyer, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for common exploration systems development, said filling the fuel tanks with propellant and counting down near zero were significant milestones.

“We’re looking at the pieces of the puzzle to decide what are the pieces that we didn’t get. 

“But we also got an awful lot of pieces to the puzzle put together, and we have a pretty good idea of what the puzzle looks like at this point,” Whitmeyer said.

Here’s the final countdown as the wet dress was halted at T-29 seconds.

Now NASA will examine the leak to determine if this wet dress is suitable for the next — a T-9 second target for wet dress launch abort. It will be in preparation to launch the Artemis 1 mission and send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon.

Testing delays might push Artemis 1’s launch to the end of August. The second Artemis flight is a crewed mission around the moon in 2024. In 2025, the third launch will be a crewed lunar landing.

Even though NASA plans to put the first ‘woman’ on the moon in 2025, with how woke culture is going, what’s to say the first gender-non-binary astronaut will beat a woman to the lunar surface?

-----------------------------------------------------
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal

-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)

Click to visit the TBP Store for Great TBP Merchandise