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New leak detected as NASA Artemis I tanking test underway (orlandosentinel.com)
13 points by markus_zhang on Sept 21, 2022 | hide | past | favorite | 5 comments


Hydrogen is rather troublesome to contain due to the fact that it is the smallest, lightest atom.

Just one of several significant problems associated with efforts to use hydrogen as fuel.


If only it had been tried before...

"Apollo AS-203 Mission Tests Liquid Hydrogen Behavior" - (July 1966) - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/55-years-ago-apollo-as-203-miss...


In other words, NASA has no excuse because "it has been tried before"?


The troublesome part here, is the stage in the program where this show up. Before the first failed launch, NASA willingly scrapped the first full wet rehearsal. It's all that says about the management of the testing phases and what implies for other parts of the program.


This doesn't leave me with a lot of confidence:

>Once again a leak in the same propellant line that forced the scrub during the Sept. 3 attempt gave NASA headaches. But teams were able to reset the flow of the fuel line, which minimized the leak to acceptable levels so that more than 730,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant were loaded into the rocket.




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