NASA Fuels Up Giant Artemis 2 Moon Rocket. Yes, It's a Little Leaky.

NASA's big moon rocket leaks a little bit, but it just might be ready to carry astronauts beyond Earth.

The space agency conducted a crucial fueling test today (Feb. 2) with the Artemis 2 mission's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, loading more than 700,000 gallons (2.65 million liters) of cryogenic liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) into the two-stage vehicle on Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

Teams had to stop loading LH2 into the SLS core stage twice to deal with leaks, but they managed to troubleshoot the issue in relatively short order and top up the rocket's enormous tanks.

Today's tanking was the trickiest part of the Artemis 2 wet dress rehearsal, a two-day-long practice run through the operations that will precede an actual launch.