Artemis I mission faces weeks of delay after launch is scrubbed

NASA still has a couple more options to attempt to launch its Space Launch System rocket in the current launch period, which ends Tuesday. If it is able to fix the hydrogen leak, the space agency could, in theory, try again Monday. A 90-minute launch window would open at 5:12 p.m. Eastern. If the agency pushes it to Tuesday, it would only have a 24-minute window in which to launch. That window would open at 6:57 p.m Eastern.

NASA is limited in when it can launch because the Orion spacecraft needs to fly when it can remain in sunlight so that its solar arrays can power its batteries. If it does not launch by Sept. 6, the next availability could come as soon as Sept. 19 and last until Oct. 4.

NASA on Saturday was once again unable to launch its massive Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, forced to endure yet another delay as the space agency works to figure out a complicated, fickle beast of a rocket and its troublesome propellant.

NASA officials spent most of the morning Saturday scrambling to fix a leak of the liquid hydrogen used as the rocket fuel. Hydrogen, the lightest element, is kept in liquid form at minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit, and NASA has had a difficult time loading it into the tanks without it leaking.

The NASA Space Launch System rocket team recommended a “no-go” for launch after engineers have been unable to fix a persistent hydrogen leak.

Charlie Blackwell Thompson, the flight director, is evaluating the recommendation but for now has only paused the fueling process. The launch countdown is holding, awaiting a final decision on whether to scrub the launch today.

If the rocket does not launch today, NASA has said it could possibly try again after 48 hours. But if it does not launch by Tuesday, the next launch window will not open until between Sept. 19 and Oct. 4.

NASA is once again struggling with a hydrogen leak as it works to fuel its massive Space Launch System rocket. Early this morning, the NASA launch director called a “go” for propellant loading, and NASA engineers were able to successfully start running liquid oxygen from storage tanks on the ground into the rocket’s fuel tanks.

They also started loading the liquid hydrogen, but at about 7:15 a.m. Eastern, engineers noticed there was a leak. They paused fueling the liquid hydrogen, which is kept at minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit, and attempted to warm the lines, a fix that they hoped would strengthen the seal. But when they started to reflow the hydrogen, they noticed another leak. This time, they used helium to pressurize the line, but this did not work either.

Unlike recent SpaceX launches to the International Space Station, which had to go at a precise time to rendezvous with the ISS, Saturday’s launch window allows the rocket to be launched at anytime in a two-hour window that begins at 2:17 p.m.

If the rocket does not launch today, NASA has said it could possibly try again after 48 hours. But if it does not launch by Sept. 6, the next launch window will be between Sept. 19 and Oct. 4.

But NASA officials acknowledge there could be problems meeting that second launch window. That is because the rocket will need to be rolled back into its assembly building so that engineers can reset its flight termination system, the self-destruct feature that would destroy the vehicle if it veers wildly off course. The reset is required by the U.S. Space Force to make sure the system is certified to work properly.

The Artemis program is NASA’s flagship deep-space human exploration program, meant to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the last of the Apollo missions in 1972. Created under the Trump administration and carried on by President Biden, it seeks to develop a permanent presence on and around the moon.

Saturday’s flight, known as Artemis I, is the first in a series of test missions. It would send the Orion crew capsule in orbit around the moon for about six weeks without any astronauts on board. The next flight, Artemis II, scheduled for some time in 2024, would send astronauts into lunar orbit but not to the surface of the moon. A lunar landing, Artemis III, could come in 2025 or 2026, if all goes according to plan.