![]() This is scheduled to be the first flight of NASA's 21st-century moon-exploration program, named Artemis after Apollo's mythological twin sister. ![]() NASA's new moon rocket sits on Launch Pad 39-B hours before liftoff Monday, Aug. Spectators sit in a bleacher near the Saturn V visitor center several hours before the scheduled NASA moon rocket launch for the Artemis 1 mission to orbit the Moon at the Kennedy Space Center, Monday, Aug. NASA’s new moon rocket is set to blast off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on Monday morning. Spectators wait in a area near the Saturn V visitor center several hours before the scheduled NASA moon rocket launch for the Artemis 1 mission to orbit the Moon at the Kennedy Space Center, Monday, Aug. A two-person lunar landing could follow by the end of 2025. Vice President Kamala Harris and Apollo 10 astronaut Tom Stafford were among the VIPs who arrived.Īssuming the shakedown flight goes well, astronauts will climb aboard for the second Artemis mission and fly around the moon and back as soon as 2024. We're going to play all nine innings here."Įven though no one was on board, thousands of people jammed the coast to see the rocket soar. Mission manager Mike Sarafin said the fault did not appear to be with the engine itself but with the plumbing leading to it.Īsked about the possibility of another launch attempt on Friday, Sarafin said, "We really need time to look at all the information, all the data. Engineers struggled to pinpoint the source of the problem well after the launch postponement was announced. Then, NASA ran into new trouble when it was unable to properly chill one of the rocket's four main engines, officials said. The fueling already was running nearly an hour late because of thunderstorms off Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The leak happened in the same place that saw seepage during a dress rehearsal in the spring. The mission will be the first flight in NASA's Artemis project, a quest to put astronauts back on the moon for the first time since the Apollo program ended 50 years ago.Īs precious minutes ticked away Monday morning, NASA repeatedly stopped and started the fueling of the Space Launch System rocket because of a leak of highly explosive hydrogen, eventually succeeding in reducing the seepage. The next launch attempt will not take place until Friday at the earliest and could be delayed until mid-September or later.
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