NASA replaces leaky fuel seal on Artemis I SLS rocket ahead of scheduled launch on September 23

The United States space agency announced recently that it has completed major repairs to its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The leaked fuel seals on the SLS were replaced by engineers last week. One of the fuel lines to the SLS began leaking earlier this month, forcing the space agency to halt its attempt to launch the Artemis I SLS-Orion spacecraft. NASA also plans to conduct a fuel test to verify that the replaced seal is functioning as intended. The US space agency has announced that it is targeting September 23 for another attempt to send the Artemis I Moon rocket into space.

On Friday, NASA announced in a blog post that they have successfully replaced the seals involved in the hydrogen leak on the Artemis I SLS missile. As mentioned earlier, the leak forced the agency to halt its second attempt to launch a Moon rocket on September 3.

US space agency stated that both the 8-inch line used to load and drain liquid hydrogen from the core stage and the 4-inch flow line used to divert some propellant during tank operation were removed and replaced by engineers before the next launch.

The navel plates have been reconnected and technicians have been conducting inspections over the weekend, according to NASA, while a tank demonstration is being prepared as early as September 17.

NASA recently announced that it is targeting September 23 for a new attempt to send Artemis I into space. NASA is supposed to have a 120-minute launch on September 23 with a landing on October 18 and a 70-minute launch on September 27 with a November 5 landing. is preparing internally to support additional dates in case flexibility is needed.

The Artemis team is also being guided by NASA to conduct the necessary preparations for testing, then launch. This will include preparations to ensure an adequate supply of fuel and gas to be used in tank operations, along with flight operations planning for the mission.