After months of intense preparation, NASA’s Artemis I mission will remain grounded for now. The launch, set to take place early Monday morning, is one of the biggest missions in the history of the space agency and will now look to head to space sometime next month. According to mission manager Mike Sarafin, one of the engines of the rocket launch system failed during pre-launch testing.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“The combination of not being able to get engine three chilled down and then the vent valve issue that they saw … caused us to pause today,” Sarafin said after the launch was waved off (via CBS News). “The team was tired at the end of the day, and we just decided that it was best to knock it off and to reconvene tomorrow.”
As crews were fueling the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will carry the Orion capsule into space, controllers discovered they were unable to cool one of the rocket’s four engines. Being able to chill the engines with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen is a required step before liftoff and because all four rockets could not accomplish cooling, the mission was left Earth-bound.
“Launch controllers condition the engines by increasing pressure on the core stage tanks to bleed some of the cryogenic propellant to the engines to get them to the proper temperature range to start them,” NASA officials said in a statement. “Engine 3 is not properly being conditioned through the bleed process, and engineers are troubleshooting.”
Once out of the Earth’s atmosphere, the Orion capsule and SLS are set to separate, sending the former on a 42-day test flight around the moon. Artemis I is set to be an uncrewed mission while Artemis II will feature a crew on a similar flight path. Artemis III, currently scheduled to launch in 2025, will then return America to the lunar surfaced for the first time since 1972.
Engineers and mission managers with the project are now set to met Tuesday to evaluate the data obtained during Monday’s false launch. NASA has yet to set a new date for launch, but notes the earliest possible launch would be on Friday, September 2nd at 12:48 p.m. Eastern time.
