The Space Launch System edges closer to a maiden flight after concluding a tanking demonstration.
The 100m-tall vehicle is standing on launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
If it does get a "go for launch" next week, it will endeavour to send a capsule, called Orion, on a 37-day journey around the Moon, ending in a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. It would be a demonstration ahead of astronauts climbing aboard SLS-Orion for a repeat mission in 2024. The sequence is part of Nasa's Artemis programme, which seeks to return humans to the lunar surface after an absence of more than 50 years.The US space agency tried to launch the SLS rocket on 29 August and again on 3 September. But on both occasions it was bedevilled by hydrogen escaping from feed lines - among other issues.And although controllers once again saw leak behaviour, they were able to implement measures to keep the losses within acceptable bounds.
What is more, controllers were able to fully tank both the core stage and upper-stage of the rocket, and get them into their flight-ready configuration. This included prepping the four big engines at the base of the rocket which have to be taken down to an extremely low operating temperature.
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