spacetoday.net: Potential fuel leak prompts cargo Dragon launch delay

Posted: Fri, Jun 10, 2022, 5:59 PM ET (2159 GMT)
NASA and SpaceX have postponed a cargo Dragon mission that was to launch this week to investigate a potential propellant leak in the spacecraft. NASA said late Monday that technicians detected "elevated vapor readings" of monomethyl hydrazine in part of the spacecraft's Draco thruster system when the spacecraft was fueled ahead of its planned Friday launch. That launch is on hold, and the propellants removed from the spacecraft, to identify the source of the vapors. NASA said it will set a new launch date for the CRS-25 mission after the problem is fixed. The thruster issue comes weeks after NASA said SpaceX was replacing a heat shield structure on a Crew Dragon spacecraft set to launch in September after it failed acceptance tests.