After canceling a scheduled launch on Saturday, NASA has postponed any further Artemis lunar mission launch attempts until September 19.
The Saturday morning decision marked the second postponement of the launch in one week.
After many unsuccessful attempts to stem a leak of liquid hydrogen fuel, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson made the formal scrub announcement at 11:19 a.m.
Officials said Saturday afternoon that they will not try another launch within the current launch window, which expires on Tuesday. Instead, they stated that the earliest they could attempt again would be late September.
NASA Admin Mentioned About The Launch
“We don’t launch until we’re confident it’s the proper time,” Bill Nelson said.
The space agency’s initial attempt to launch this rocket was canceled on Monday when a sensor detected that one out of the 4 engines was not cooling to the appropriate temperature of minus 420 deg Fahrenheit.
After investigating and fixing the issue, officials determined that the engine was good and that a sensor was generating a misleading temperature reading.
They knew they had a defective sensor, said John Honeycutt, the rocket’s program manager.
Then, on Saturday, while technicians attempted to fuel the rocket, they discovered a liquid hydrogen leak, forcing them to pause and restart the procedure three times.
NASA attempted three failed repairs before falling behind schedule and Blackwell-Thompson had to cancel the launch.
Mike Sarafin said Saturday afternoon that the hydrogen transfer line had been mistakenly overpressurized, but that it was really early to know if it was the source of the leak.
Officials stated the rocket will have to be rolled to the VAB unless they could obtain a waiver to stay on the launchpad until the next attempt.
