More than 50 years after Apollo’s final lunar trip, NASA was forced to postpone the first test launch of the enormous new rocketship it intends to use for upcoming manned journeys back to the moon on Monday by at least four days due to an engine-cooling issue.
The issue was discovered as the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s fuel tanks were being loaded with liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellants that had been super-cooled, and as launch technicians were starting a procedure known as “conditioning” to cool the engines sufficiently for takeoff, according to NASA.
The launch team leadership decided to stop the countdown when one of the four main engines did not cool down as anticipated.
Two minutes after the scheduled launch time, at 8:35 a.m. EDT (12:35 GMT), the launch was aborted as the 32-story-tall rocket and its Orion spacecraft prepared to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The six-week test flight of Orion around the moon and back to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific is the centerpiece of the Artemis I mission.
Although it said that the two-stage rocket’s initial launch window was on Friday, September 2, NASA did not provide a new launch date.
The agency’s decision to keep to that deadline will rely on how swiftly engineers can fix the engine problem. The following launch window is on Monday, September 5.
Launch delays around the eleven o’clock hour are common in the space industry, and the one on Monday did not portend a serious setback for NASA or its principal contractors, Boeing Co (BA.N) for SLS and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) for Orion.
At Cape Canaveral in Florida, the U.S., on August 29, 2022, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the company’s next-generation moon rocket, is shown sitting on the launch pad with its Orion crew capsule.
Before NASA decides that the 5.75 million pound craft is safe enough to transport astronauts on a future journey planned for 2024, the mission is meant to put it through its paces in a demanding demonstration flight and stretch its design limitations.
Orion will carry a simulated crew of three, consisting of one male and two female mannequins, even though there won’t be any actual humans on board. These mannequins will be outfitted with sensors to detect radiation levels and other pressures that actual astronauts might encounter.
