The launch of NASA’s new megarocket to the Moon was canceled on Monday due to a technical problem with one of the spacecraft’s main engines, NASA said in its live video, de facto reporting at least a few days of this launch. , which should mark the beginning of the great American space program back on the Moon, Artemis.
Fifty years after the last Apollo flight, the Artemis 1 mission should mark the beginning of the American program to return to the Moon, to allow humanity to reach Mars.
The next possible launch dates are September 2 and 5. But the problem that occurred in one of the engines must first be evaluated in detail before determining a new date. A press conference was expected in the middle of the day.
“I’m a little disappointed, but … I’m not surprised,” astronaut Stan Love, who has worked on the program for two decades, told reporters in Florida. “It’s a new vehicle, it has millions of parts, they all have to work perfectly.”
a test flight
It is the first time that the orange and white SLS rocket, 98 meters high, must fly. Therefore, NASA officials insisted all weekend that it was a test flight and that technical unforeseen events could happen at any time, despite several dress rehearsals in recent months.
Launch was originally scheduled for 8:33 am (2:33 pm Paris time) from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center.
The filling of the rocket’s tanks with its ultracold fuel (liquid hydrogen and oxygen) had begun an hour late due to the risk of lightning. A leak then caused a pause during the filling of the main stage with hydrogen.
A decisive problem
Around 7 am local time, a new and decisive problem appeared: one of the four RS-25 engines, under the main stage of the rocket, could not reach the desired temperature, a necessary condition to launch it. up.
The countdown was then stopped, and after more than an hour of waiting, NASA launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson made the final decision to cancel.
The window of opportunity was only two hours long and there was not enough time to keep trying to fix the problem.
Source: BFM TV
