"We were able to load LOX (liquid oxygen) into the core stage for the very first time: We got about half way with the LH2 (liquid hydrogen) pneumatic pressure at the pad," NASA Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson told a press conference on Tuesday. "We decided we would need to send a team into the pad [so] we stopped our cryogenic loading operations yesterday."
NASA launch managers tried on Sunday and on Monday to load nearly 1 million gallons of fuel into the 322-foot-tall Space Launch System in the wet dress rehearsal planned to be the last full checkout before the Artemis 1 is fired for its first test flight. On Sunday, faulty fans stopped the test and a jammed valve halted it a second time on Monday.
"We are remaining at the pad in preparation for our next wet dress rehearsal attempt. ... They had a vaporizer leak that froze up," Blackwell-Thompson said.
The NASA officials refused to give any firm date as to when the delayed Artemis 1 flight would now take place. But they said it would have to wait until after the next manned Axiom mission to the ISS.