Air Products fills NASA’s new hydrogen sphere

Air Products recently completed the first fill of the world’s largest hydrogen sphere at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida.

NASA uses liquid hydrogen combined with liquid oxygen as fuel in cryogenic rocket engines.

To complete the fill, Air Products delivered over 50 trailer loads of liquid hydrogen—more than 730,000 gallons in all—to NASA’s new sphere, Air Products reported. The NASA hydrogen sphere is the world’s largest liquid hydrogen tank, measuring 90 ft. tall and 83 ft. in diameter. The hydrogen will be used to power NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to return humans to the moon for the first time since the Apollo era and establish the first long-term presence on the moon.

“Air Products has a long history dating back into the 1950s of working with NASA, and stretching from well before the successful Apollo 11 moon landing to more recent missions to study Mars,” Francesco Maione, Air Products Americas president, said in a news release. “This hydrogen fill, which is Air Products’ largest ever for NASA, successfully demonstrates our ability to supply world-scale levels of industrial gases safely and reliably through our robust supply chain, so NASA can confidently continue its important work for future missions to the moon and beyond.”

Air Products’ working relationship with NASA began in 1957. It has included supplying NASA with liquid hydrogen and other industrial gases to advance the U.S. space program including Orion, the space shuttle, and Apollo, and reaching all the way back to the earliest Mercury program missions. In addition to supplying products for space launches, Air Products also has had a long-term relationship with NASA’s engine testing program at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, Johnson Space Center in Texas, and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.