NASA’s Artemis 1 flight vehicle is left in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida while investigation and problems were found in April at the launch pad. A series of problems were found during three attempts to launch the Wet Dress Rehearsal while the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket were outside the Launch Pad 39B.
While the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) and prime launch processing contractor Jacobs are troubleshooting problems with links from the Mobile Launcher to the vehicle in the VAB, they are also researching with gaseous nitrogen (GN2) contractor Air Liquide to check if the purge gas supply can reach the flow rate and duration requirements to support a launch attempt of SLS. The GN2 purge supply is essential to allow the vehicle to be loaded with a propellant that was lost during tanking attempts in April, and an also 32 long hour test at the high SLS flow rates was planned to start on May 16th to demonstrate the usefulness of repairs and upgrades at the Air Liquide plant.
However, Tentative plans are about to roll back out to the pad for the next WDR attempt at the end of May will depend on how much longer the fixing and retesting will take.
