Hearken to this audio excerpt from Joe Pavicic, Artemis operations mission engineer
Joe Pavicic will always remember when he instructed the Artemis launch director groups had been NO-GO for launch.
Earlier than Artemis I lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart in Florida in November 2022, the launch group made a number of launch makes an attempt the months prior.
“Throughout a earlier Artemis I launch try, there was a difficulty with engine three,” stated Pavicic, operations mission engineer who labored on the engines console throughout Artemis I. “One sensor was exhibiting that it wasn’t seeing liquid hydrogen via it. It was exhibiting that it was at ambient temperature.”
Joe pavicic
Operations Challenge Engineer
Previous to engine ignition, launch group controllers should first chill the engines earlier than the cryogenic liquid propellant fuels and lifts the SLS (Area Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft into the heavens and onward to the Moon. Chilling the engines ensures the {hardware} doesn’t get broken when uncovered to the super-cooled liquid hydrogen at -423 levels Fahrenheit.
“We tried all the pieces we might consider,” Pavicic remembers. “Any process we might attempt, we tried it, and we simply by no means noticed these charges that we must always have.”
Thus, Pavicic, who’s initially from West Palm Seaside and studied aerospace engineering at Embry Riddle Aeronautical College in Daytona Seaside, Florida, went again to the drafting board with the remainder of his group, working days and nights rewriting procedures and studying new classes concerning the engines and sensors till they had been lastly in a position to get to a profitable launch.
joe pavicic
Operations Challenge Engineer
NASA efficiently launched and flew the Artemis I mission and now, Pavicic is working as one of many operations mission engineers, persevering with to assist the launch group develop new launch commit standards and procedures throughout the launch countdown forward of Artemis II, the primary crewed Artemis mission, which can ship 4 astronauts across the Moon and again in 10 days subsequent 12 months.