Cyro Testing at ML, Pad 39B

In this view, the cross country line that liquid hydrogen will flow through can be seen stretching from the storage tank to the mobile launcher (ML) at Launch Pad 39B on Nov. 8, 2019, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The agency’s Exploration Ground Systems oversaw testing of the pad’s cryogenic systems – the infrastructure that will send liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen from the storage tanks to the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket – in preparation for the launch of SLS with the Orion spacecraft atop for the uncrewed Artemis I mission. Each of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks can hold more than 800,000 gallons of propellant. The liquid hydrogen, lighter than liquid oxygen, will make its way from the tank to the rocket using gaseous hydrogen to pressurize the sphere at the time of launch, while the liquid oxygen will be sent to the rocket via pumps.