NASA yesterday called off a test flight of its largest-ever rocket in a setback to the ambitious program to send humans back to the moon and eventually to Mars.
“We don’t launch until it’s right,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said after an engine temperature issue forced liftoff from Kennedy Space Center to be scrubbed.
“This is a very complicated machine,” Nelson said. “You don’t want to light the candle until it’s ready to go.”
Photo: AFP
Alternative dates for launch of the US space agency’s uncrewed Artemis 1 mission are Friday and Monday next week.
Blastoff had been planned for 8:33am (12:33pm GMT), but was canceled because of a temperature problem with one of the four RS-25 engines on the 98m Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
NASA said a test to get one of the engines to the proper temperature range for liftoff was not successful.
It said the SLS rocket and Orion crew capsule which sits on top “remain in a safe and stable configuration.”
Nelson said delays were “just part of the space business” and expressed confidence that NASA engineers will “get it fixed and then we’ll fly.”
Tens of thousands of people — including US Vice President Kamala Harris — had gathered near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch the launch, which comes 50 years after Apollo 17 astronauts last set foot on the moon.
The goal of the flight is to test the SLS and Orion crew capsule. Mannequins equipped with sensors are standing in for a crew for the mission.
Overnight operations to fill the orange-and-white rocket with more than 3 million liters of ultra-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen were briefly delayed by a high risk of lightning.
Around 3am, another hiccup emerged: a potential leak was detected during the filling of the main stage with hydrogen, causing a pause. After tests, the flow resumed.
NASA engineers later detected the engine temperature problem and put a hold on the countdown before eventually scrubbing the launch.
The rocket’s Orion capsule is to orbit the moon to see if the vessel is safe for people in the near future. At some point, Artemis aims to put a woman and a person of color on the Moon for the first time.
During the 42-day trip, the Orion capsule is to orbit the moon, coming within 100km at its closest approach, and then fire its engines to shoot out more than 64,000km — a record for a spacecraft rated to carry humans.
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