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NASA, Air Liquide continue working on Artemis 1 WDR issues - NASASpaceFlight.com - NASASpaceflight.com

NASA, Air Liquide continue working on Artemis 1 WDR issues - NASASpaceFlight.com - NASASpaceflight.com

NASA, Air Liquide continue working on Artemis 1 WDR issues - NASASpaceFlight.com - NASASpaceflight.com
May 17, 2022 4 mins, 28 secs

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While the Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program and prime launch processing contractor Jacobs are troubleshooting issues with connections from the Mobile Launcher to the vehicle in the VAB, they are also working with gaseous nitrogen (GN2) contractor Air Liquide to verify that the purge gas supply can meet the flow rate and duration requirements to support an SLS launch attempt.

Crawler Transporter 2 returned the Orion/SLS vehicle and Mobile Launcher-1 to High Bay 3 of the VAB early on the morning of April 26.

The vehicle and Mobile Launcher were rolled back to the VAB to work their issues in parallel with Air Liquide’s repairs and upgrades, which are now required before the SLS rocket can be completed fueled.

“On the ICPS purge boot, the teams are still meeting as to exactly what is going on with that particular item,” Cliff Lanham, senior vehicle operations manager for NASA’s EGS Program, said in a May 12 interview with NASASpaceflight.

The purge boot is a part on the aft plate of the ICPSU, which has a forward and an aft plate connection from the Mobile Launcher to the stage.

Crawler Transporter 2 carries the Artemis 1 vehicle and Mobile Launcher back into VAB High Bay 3 early on the morning of April 26, following rollback from Pad 39B.

A check valve in the gaseous helium system on the ICPS had also stopped functioning correctly between the second attempt on April 4 and the third on April 14.

The issue with the ICPS helium check valve turned out to be a symptom of a problem elsewhere in the ground to vehicle helium connection.

The check valve is only accessible when the vehicle is in the VAB and when workers were able to inspect it a piece of rubber not associated with the valve was found stuck there, preventing the check valve from operating correctly

“They found particulate in the check valve; that was what was holding the check valve open,” Lanham said

(Photo Caption: The American flag is seen on the ICPS second stage of the Artemis 1 SLS vehicle while out at Pad 39B on April 21

Issues with connections from ICPS Umbilical on the Mobile Launcher (to the right of the stage) are being reviewed by engineering boards to determine corrective actions. A helium check valve on the stage was contaminated with parts of a rubber O-ring that came apart upstream of the valve and prevented the valve from fully closing. Engineers are also troubleshooting outside air that is leaking into one of the connections from the umbilical to the ICPS.)

“That’s why as far as a potential cause, this is certainly a potential cause,” Lanham said

“We think we’ve done what we can do as far as retorquing the flange bolts, and then they do a 30-hour retorque after that just to see if there’s been any relaxation if you will,” Lanham said

At the time of the May 12 interview, Lanham said that the repair and upgrade work was complete, and a multi-day series of verification tests were underway

“Our technical management team has worked with Air Liquide and our facility management director here to develop test procedures that will allow us to exercise the system in a way that will basically stress it more than we would expect during our WDR and launch campaign,” Lanham said during a May 5 media teleconference

“We’ll basically put dampers out at the interface to the Mobile Launcher and be able to adjust and regulate to ensure we’re getting the back pressures that the Mobile Launcher and vehicle would put on the system, again in an effort to make sure we’re stressing the system to meet our needs,” he added

Although the GN2 plant repairs could be validated during the week of May 16, there is more uncertainty about when the vehicle and Mobile Launcher issues will be resolved

“We decided today (May 12) we’ll wait until next week before we contemplate any platform retractions, because again our whole goal will be to do whatever additional work we can do in the time-frame needed to do any changes to the ICPSU,” Lanham said

One of the tasks that the Integrated Operations team in the VAB completed in parallel with troubleshooting the hydrogen leak and check valve issues was removing test instrumentation on the outer mold line of the vehicle and parts of the Mobile Launcher as a part of the Dynamic Rollout Test (DRT)

“From an instrumentation standpoint, we’re fully expecting to wrap up removing all the ground instrumentation from the vehicle and the Mobile Launcher this week, we’re nearly done [with] that work,” Lanham said during the May 12 interview

“We definitely try to environmentally protect as much as possible but while we were out there for WDR we had some significant rain events that drove some water intrusion,” Lanham said

“We pulled off the GSE (Ground Support Equipment) panels and did some inspections to ensure we didn’t have any kind of water damage, which we did not,” Lanham said

“The wind was pretty intense out of the east blowing across there and there was extra material, so it flapped a lot and then we did get some tears,” Lanham said

While out at the pad, Lanham said the extra material was taped down

“At this point, we’re considering other work,” Lanham said

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