NASA on Saturday halted an ongoing countdown and postponed its attempt to visit the moon once again on the Artemis mission, which was to launch the first test flight of its giant next-generation rocket.
The latest attempt to launch the 32-story Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion capsule was aborted after repeated attempts by technicians to fix a leak of supercooled liquid hydrogen propellant being pumped into the vehicle center stage fuel tanks.
Adding to the problems remediating the leak, mission managers were late in the countdown, leaving very little time to complete pre-liftoff preparations.
Artemis I launch director Charlie Blackwell Thompson officially suspended pre-flight operations about three hours before the planned two-hour launch window opened at 2:17 p.m. EDT.
So far nothing has been said about the deadline to try again to launch the mission, dubbed Artemis I. But NASA could schedule another attempt for Monday or Tuesday.
“Engineers continue to collect additional data,” NASA said in a statement announcing the cancellation. A first launch attempt on Monday was thwarted by last-minute technical issues that surfaced during the countdown.
What is NASA’s Artemis 1?
The target of Artemis 1, named for Apollo’s twin sister, will test the 98-meter Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will carry the Orion capsule.
The mission will be unmanned, but instead there will be dummies equipped with sensors that will record acceleration, vibration and radiation levels.
The launch was initially scheduled for last Monday, but operations to fill the orange and white rocket with ultracold liquid hydrogen and oxygen were briefly delayed due to the risk of lightning. Also, a possible leak was detected during the filling of the main stage with hydrogen, causing a pause. After testing, the flow resumed.
NASA engineers later detected the engine temperature problem and decided to abort the launch. The duration of the mission will be 37 days, 23 hours and 53 minutes.
It is worth mentioning that the Orion capsule will orbit the Moon to check if the ship is safe for people in the near future. Artemis intends to take a woman and a black person to the Moon for the first time.
(With information from Reuters)
