ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA looked to complete its Artemis moon rocket tanking test at Kennedy Space Center after an issue forced a scrub on Sunday, but a new valve issue forced mission managers to call it off again.
NASA officials had already pulled the plug Sunday on the tanking test of the fully integrated Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule at KSC’s Launch Pad 39-B when it wasn’t able to keep safely pressurized the mobile launcher on which the hardware sits.
That issue was mitigated overnight, but Monday’s redo effort also fell short of its goal of filling and draining both the core and upper stages of the rocket with 730,000 gallons of super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
