NASA officials give an update on the status of Artemis-I test, launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s Artemis I Moon rocket is now back at the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs after a faulty valve canceled last week’s wet dress rehearsal.

Officials said the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft will return to launchpad 39-B once the repairs are made.

Jim Free with NASA said rolling the SLS back to the VAB was the right call in order to make the necessary fixes.

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Read: Moon rocket to return to VAB for repairs ahead of ‘wet dress rehearsal’

“Right now, we’re looking at the next wet dress in the early to the mid-June time frame we may update that as the other work progresses,” Free said.

Teams have already begun replacing a faulty upper stage check valve and are trying to pinpoint the root cause of the failure before testing the new valve.

Read: Date set for next Artemis I dress rehearsal attempt

“We inspected the valve and did find a small piece of rubber that was preventing the check valve from sealing correctly and we are looking for the source of where that debris could have come from,” Free said.

Until teams are able to demonstrate the ability to load propellant into the SLS tanks and conduct a full launch countdown an actual launch date for Artemis -I  will remain up in the air.

Read: NASA Artemis mission on hold as testing delayed for second time

NASA officials said the earliest possibility for the test will be sometime in  August.

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