NASA homes in on likely redesign to fix Orion spacecraft's leaky valves
By Stephen Clark
Published on April 10, 2026.
The Apollo spacecraft's Artemis II mission has been successful despite issues with the spacecraft's toilet and waste disposal system. Ground controllers have revised their timeline as the Artemis II astronauts are heading towards Earth after a close encounter with the Moon. The mission was supposed to take manual control of the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity, for a piloting demonstration but this was postponed to an additional test of the ship's propulsion system. The leak is in the helium pressure supply to the oxidizer side of the spacecraft, which uses this helium gas to push propellant through a series of tanks and pipes to feed the spacecraft’s rocket engines. The helium leak has not affected the propulsion system's performance so far.
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