Artemis (NASA moon mission)

“Red Team” on the pad torquing some bolts on an LH2 replenish valve, due to an intermittent leak in the supply. Hopefully done soon and problem fixed so they can resume LH2 replenishment on both the Core and ICPS.
 
Red Team finished with their work and back safely. Core Stage LH2 flow resumes. Range is currently no go because of a radar issue, which of course they are working. Still about 3-1/2 hours from opening of the launch window.
 
Sorry, I was thinking in the wrong time zone. 1:04 AM EST, 0604 GMT.
 
sts60 said:
“Red Team” on the pad torquing some bolts on an LH2 replenish valve, due to an intermittent leak in the supply.
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sts60 said:
Red Team finished with their work and back safely. Core Stage LH2 flow resumes.
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Holy badassery. Just drive out to a launch pad with a practically fully-fueled non-safed gigantic rocket sitting on it and turn some bolts.
 
Checkmite said:
Holy badassery. Just drive out to a launch pad with a practically fully-fueled non-safed gigantic rocket sitting on it and turn some bolts.
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One of the guys I worked with when I was out at KSC was a repository of really good stories. One of them involved an unmanned Mercury Redstone that ignited, then… stopped. The hold-down bolts had fired, so the fully-fueled vehicle was sitting unsecured on the pad. While they were sitting in the launch control bunker nearby debating what to do, the recovery parachute deployed and hung down the side of the vehicle. They waited for the range safety batteries to run down, then drew straws to see who would go out with new bolts and secure the vehicle.

The vehicle had just barely shifted and the bolts wouldn’t quite fit. The guys came back to the bunker, white and shaking, and they waited while the machine shop turned out fractionally smaller bolts that would fit in the misaligned holes. A pick up truck roared up, someone tossed the new bolts out the window, and the truck screamed off. More straws were drawn, and the new smaller bolts did the trick.
 
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Range has finished with their switch, getting ready to test command destruct capability.

Topping off upper stage (ICPS) LH2. Still in planned T-10 minutes, planned to pick up at 1254 EST, but likely to hold a bit longer while everything is checked after the LH2 and range issue fixes.
 
There is a windowless, heavily fenced (with lotsa razor wire) building with a plethora of antennae on the Cape side. When the commenters talk about range safety, they’re talking about the Air Force folks in there who would blow the rocket up if it decides it would rather head for Orlando than orbit.

In a crewed launch, such signals would cause a very rapid series of events including the abort tower motors yanking the crew module away from a really impressive fireball (Mode 1 Abort).
 
Solitaire said:
I thought they were delaying because of a faulty ethernet router.
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The switch has been replaced and they are running tests.

The hold is built into the countdown. Nothing has been delayed yet in terms of the countdown. But due to the LH2 valve fixes and the range fix, they will need some extra time, so they will probably stay in the hold longer than planned.
 
“Indefinite” slip per PAO, but that just means the Test Director hasn’t declared a new target launch time. It won’t be the original 1:04 AM EST, of course (4 minutes away as I post). Maybe an hour?
 
“No constraints to launch.” NTD polling the Mission Management Team.

Test director: ready to proceed.
Launch director: polling.
 
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