According to BGR, NASA's latest SpaceX mission is to deliver more cargo to the international space station. But now, it has been put on hold because NASA and SpaceX are investigating possible fuel leaks from the Dragon spacecraft**
Nasaindicates It found that "the vapor reading of monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) increased" in an area of the propulsion system of the Dragon spacecraft. Therefore, engineers have unloaded propellant and oxidizer from this area for further investigation. The space agency said it would announce a new target launch date once the reason for the rise in readings was determined.
Neither NASA nor SpaceX said how long they expected it to take to resolve the fuel leak. At the same time, however, NASA is conducting eye tests on some astronauts. NASA flight engineer Kjell Lindgren is also responsible for inspecting the space suits on the international space station.
Due to the technical problems of NASA's aging space suit, the spacewalk mission has also been shelved recently. Fortunately, the new spacesuit is under development.
This is not the first time NASA has had to postpone its launch mission because of a fuel leak. As early as April, NASA postponed a "dress rehearsal" of its Artemis moon mission due to a fuel leak. However, this SpaceX fuel leak is a bit more urgent. This is because the international space station relies on its cargo transport to maintain the optimal operation of the space station.
Although this special "dragon" spacecraft did not carry any astronauts to the space station, it did cause problems for future launches to the space station. Is this a problem that NASA needs to worry about in the future?
If NASA and SpaceX fix the fuel leak, the capsule will be ready for a third launch into space. This special "dragon" capsule, known as c208, has supported many missions to the international space station.
SpaceX has made amazing progress in making its rockets reusable. However, each launch means new maintenance. Problems like this crop up.
It is important to remember that both NASA and SpaceX are dealing with things. Moreover, they will solve this problem as soon as possible, and hope that any knowledge collected from it can help repair the fuel leaks of SpaceX in the future, if they suddenly occur.