NASA’s Artemis 1 launch has been postponed due to a malfunctioning RS-25 engine on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
The engine was to be bled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen to condition it before launch
but team engineers noticed that one of the engines was not bleeding as expected.
The next available launch window is on Friday, September 2nd.
The launch director had signed off on a plan to troubleshoot one of the RS-25 engines which is malfunctioning.
The troubleshooting plan did not work and now the hydrogen team has been asked to come up with a new plan to solve the issue.
The countdown clock has been put on hold at T-40 minutes
as the hydrogen team discusses options with the launch director.
Artemis I is an uncrewed mission that will be the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to the Moon,
eventually taking humans back to Earth’s lone satellite.
During the mission, NASA will demonstrate the performance and capabilities
of its most powerful launch vehicle ever, the Space Launch System (SLS), and the Orion crew capsule.
During the approximately six-week-long mission,
SLS and Orion will travel a distance of around 65,000 kilometres to the Moon and back.