NASA on Monday interrupted the countdown to the launch of the test flight of its new lunar rocket due to a fuel leak, the US space agency announced.
The leak took place in the same place where the infiltrations appeared during a countdown test in the spring, according to the US news agency AP.
Upon detecting the leak, launch controllers interrupted the supply operation, which was already an hour behind schedule due to storms at sea.
The process was slowly restarted to see if the hydrogen leak could get any worse, which, if so, should end the countdown.
The launch of the rocket, without a crew, is scheduled for this Monday, during a two-hour “window of opportunity” that opens at 1:33 p.m. in Lisbon.
NASA had indicated that if the flight was not possible today, there would be two more possible dates, September 2 and 5.
This test flight, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, aims to place a manned capsule in orbit around the Moon for the first time in 50 years.
The 98-meter-tall rocket is the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA, surpassing the Saturn V that carried astronauts to the Moon half a century ago.
The launch is intended to put the Orion capsule into lunar orbit, which instead of astronauts carries three test dummies.
The lunar orbit mission is expected to last six weeks.
Even with no one on board, thousands of people prepared to watch the launch of the SLS rocket, which stands for Space Launch System.
US Vice President Kamala Harris flew to Orlando with her husband but had not yet made the road trip to Cape Canaveral for the launch when the countdown was interrupted, according to AP.
Fuel leaks derailed NASA’s countdown test in April, prompting a slew of repairs.
The test was repeated with more success in June, but some leaks were also detected.
Technicians said they wouldn’t know for sure whether the repairs would be sufficient until the rocket’s tanks were loaded today.
The Artemis I mission has suffered several delays that have meant that the budget for this test in lunar orbit has cost 4,100 million dollars (more than 4,130 million euros, at current exchange rates).
Following the Artemis I mission, NASA hopes in 2024 to deliver astronauts to the Moon’s orbit (Artemis II) in 2024, and to its surface (Artemis III) in late 2025.
With the Artemis lunar program, NASA hopes to “establish sustainable missions” to the Moon starting in 2028, with the goal of subsequently sending astronauts to Mars.
The departure for these lunar missions or for Mars will be carried out from a space station that will be installed in orbit of the Moon, the Gateway.
Only American astronauts, 12 in all, were on the surface of the Moon between 1969 and 1972, as part of the Apollo program.
Source: TSF
