A NASA helicopter flies over the agency’s Space Launch System rocket on Aug. 29, 2022. NASA suspended the test flight of its largest-ever Moon rocket on Monday, citing an engine problem. Photo: AFP
US space agency NASA has been forced to suspend the launch of the inaugural mission of its ambitious Artemis program for the second time in a week, after the launch team failed to fix a leak of liquid hydrogen despite various troubleshooting procedures before the release window. Saturday afternoon local time, in what space analysts call a “disappointing but not surprising” development.
Chinese space analysts said the problems causing the delay appear to be “reasonable” given that it has been half a decade since the United States successfully launched a mega rocket capable of sending humans to the moon. However, they criticized the political considerations and Cold War mentality behind NASA’s Artemis program, which they said could lead to catastrophic results.
The bush was called at 11:17 a.m. EST on Saturday, three hours before the start of the launch window, which has no doubt disappointed some space enthusiasts.
Liquid hydrogen is one of the propellants used in the large rocket core stage. The leak prevented the launch team from refilling the liquid hydrogen tank. It wasn’t the first time that hydrogen leaks have plagued efforts to fuel the Space Launch System (SLS) mega rocket, with similar ones appearing during general rehearsals and the first attempt at launch. However, NASA officials described the leak on Saturday as much larger and are now studying the problem and discussing next steps, US media reported.
The stack, including the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, must return to the vehicle assembly building unless they can get a waiver to remain on the launch pad until another attempt, officials said. Americans, which would not happen during the current release. period ending on Tuesday. Instead, they said the soonest they could try another release would be the end of September.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the space shuttle was sent back to the Vehicle Assembly Building 20 times before launch, and the cost of two rubs is far less than one failure. “We don’t launch until we think it’s right,” Nelson said. “These teams worked on this and this is the conclusion they came to. I see this as part of our space program, where safety is at the top of the list.”
The problems that have appeared so far with the SLS rocket were quite reasonable, given that the United States has halted the development of this mega lunar landing rocket since it last managed to send humans to the Earth’s natural satellite half a year ago century, Wang Ya’nan. , editor-in-chief of the Beijing-based journal Aerospace Knowledge, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Wang said being able to immediately pinpoint problems with precision shows the maturity of US space launch technology. “Disallowing potential risks during launch is standard practice in the industry,” he said.
US NPR reported on Sunday, citing comments from NASA’s inspector general, that each of the Artemis program’s first flights will cost more than $4 billion, excluding billions of dollars in development, and some critics have criticized that the program would be too much. it is difficult to be sustainable if NASA continues to depend on this rocket and capsule, both of which have a high price.
Indeed, the SLS rocket, while inheriting a range of key technology from the Space Shuttle, such as main engines and solid rocket boosters, is no stranger to delays. The rocket is already years behind its original schedule, as the US Congress had wanted it to fly in 2016, just five years after NASA retired its aging space shuttle fleet.
Despite the recent Artemis 1 delays, Nelson said Saturday that NASA’s plan to launch Artemis 2 in 2024 and Artemis 3 in 2025 remains intact.
The US space agency aims to land multiple crews of astronauts in previously unexplored regions of the Moon – in the Artemis II and Artemis III missions, scheduled for 2024 and 2025 respectively – and eventually deliver manned missions on mars
However, Chinese space analysts questioned the nature of the Artemis program, which they said is political with a strong Cold War mentality, pointing to a recent report on the state of the space industrial base by 2022 written by American officials from the US Defense Innovation Unit. Air Force and Air Force Research Laboratory that claimed China could overtake the US and become the world’s dominant space power “economically, diplomatically and militarily” by 2045.
U.S. officials argue in the report released Aug. 24 that the U.S. must act quickly to maintain its advantage over Beijing, including using more commercial technology and setting policy goals long-term bipartisanship.
“This vision must be as clear and ambitious in scale and timeline as the PRC and more inclusive of international collaboration across the spectrum of commercial, civilian and national security space activities,” the report said. “For the first time, participants expressed concern that China appears to be on track to overtake the US as the dominant space power by 2045 or potentially sooner unless proactive steps are taken now to maintain our nation’s leadership “.
It shows the US’s lack of self-confidence, and by portraying China as an imaginary enemy in space and promoting space colonialism, Washington is trying to repeat the space race it did with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Song Zhongping, a space. TV observer and commentator, he told the Global Times on Sunday, adding that this mentality, which does not contain scientific goals but purely political, could lead to catastrophic results for the current Artemisa program.
Song also blasted the so-called international cooperation that excludes China that the United States is targeting as “hypocritical,” saying that such narrow-mindedness and selfish acts would only hinder the progress of human beings as a whole in exploration spatial