Overview
- NASA ended the wet dress rehearsal at T‑5:15 when sensors registered a spike in the liquid hydrogen leak rate during the terminal countdown.
- Engineers traced the leak to the tail service mast umbilical interface that routes cryogenic propellant into the rocket’s core stage.
- Despite the stoppage, teams fully loaded more than 700,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen and met several objectives, while also noting audio dropouts, cold‑weather camera impacts, and a crew‑hatch pressurization valve that needs adjustment.
- With February’s window vacated, astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen are being released from quarantine and will re‑enter about two weeks before the next target.
- NASA will review data, fix the issues, and run a second wet dress rehearsal before setting a firm date, with March opportunities identified on March 6–9 and 11 and additional dates available in April if required.