NASA cancels launch of new Moon rocket due to engine problem

 

 

A FUEL leak and then an engine problem during final lift-off preparations led NASA to call off the launch of its mighty new Moon rocket on Monday on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard.

The next launch attempt will not take place until Friday at the earliest and could be off until next month.

The flight, when it happens, will be the first launch in NASA’s Artemis project, a quest to put astronauts back on the Moon for the time since the Apollo programme ended 50 years ago.

As precious minutes ticked away on Monday morning, NASA repeatedly stopped and started the fuelling of the Space Launch System rocket with nearly 1 million gallons of super-cold hydrogen and oxygen because of a leak of highly explosive hydrogen. The leak happened in the same place that saw seepage during a dress rehearsal back in the spring.

Then, NASA ran into new trouble when it was unable to properly chill one of the rocket’s four main engines, officials said. Engineers continued working to pinpoint the source of the problem after the launch postponement was announced.

“This is a very complicated machine, a very complicated system, and all those things have to work, and you don’t want to light the candle until it’s ready to go,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. Referring to launch delays, Nelson said: “It’s just part of the space business and it’s part of, particularly, a test flight.” The rocket was set to lift-off on a flight to propel a crew capsule into orbit around the Moon. The six-week mission was scheduled to end with the capsule returning to Earth in a splashdown in the Pacific in October. The 322-foot (98-meter) spaceship is the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA, out-muscling even the Saturn V that the Apollo astronauts rode. As for when NASA might make another lift-off attempt, launch commentator Derrol Nail said, engineers were still analysing the engine problem and “we must wait to see what shakes out from their test data.”