NASA called off Saturday’s launch attempt for the much-anticipated mission to send a rocket around the moon, marking the second time within a week that engineers decided to scrub the flight due to mechanical issues.
(Bloomberg) — NASA called off Saturday’s launch attempt for the much-anticipated mission to send a rocket around the moon, marking the second time within a week that engineers decided to scrub the flight due to mechanical issues.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, launch director for the Artemis I mission, called off the flight at about 11:17 a.m., three hours before the scheduled launch window was to begin. A leak in equipment transferring hydrogen fuel prevented NASA engineers from fully loading the rocket. A similar leak was one of several issues that led to the postponement of the earlier attempt on Aug. 29.
“We’ll go when it’s ready,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said after the scrub, saying that test flights like the one that was scheduled for Saturday are essential before humans can fly on future missions. “This is part of the space business.”
The mission, called Artemis I, is the initial step in NASA’s ambitious plan to send the first woman and the first person of color to the surface of the moon as early as 2025. The goal is to prove the new Space Launch System can send an uncrewed capsule called Orion into lunar orbit, before NASA feels comfortable putting astronauts on board.
NASA didn’t immediately specify a date for the next launch attempt. If the agency decides to roll the SLS back into the gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building, Nelson said the next launch attempt would likely not happen until the latter half of October.
Saturday’s launch attempt was more than a decade in the making. First conceived in 2010, the SLS was originally projected to launch as early as 2017. But its development has been long delayed, with its budget ballooning the longer the rocket has stayed on the ground. The rocket’s development cost has soared from an original $7 billion to about $23 billion, according to an estimate by the Planetary Society.
Over time audits had highlighted issues at the prime contractors — Boeing Co. for the SLS and Lockheed Martin Corp. for the Orion capsule — as well as testing and construction mishaps.
The Monday morning attempt was scrubbed one minute after the start of its launch window following a night of weather delays and glitches with the rocket’s equipment.
Artemis I, when it does launch, will send an uncrewed Orion capsule into orbit around the moon. The capsule will carry a combination of mannequins and other science and technology payloads, tasked with inserting itself into a distant lunar orbit before returning to Earth and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean after a 37-day mission.
(Updates with additional details and NASA comment in paragraphs 2, 3 and 5)
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