UpdatedAugust 29, 2022, 3:57 PM
SpaceThe launch of the Artemis mission is postponed
A purge problem at one of the engines forced NASA to give up on Monday. Next possible date, September 2.
The day had dawned on Florida but the rocket remained on its launch pad.
Getty Images via AFP
The takeoff of NASA’s new rocket for the Moon, the most powerful in the world, was canceled on Monday due to a technical problem, a disappointment for the American space agency, which will now have to aim for the next fallback dates.
Fifty years following Apollo’s last flight, the Artemis 1 mission should mark the start of the American program to return to the Moon, which should allow humanity to then reach Mars. The next possible take-off dates are September 2 and 5. But the problem will first have to be assessed in detail by NASA teams before determining a new date.
The launch was originally scheduled for 8:33 a.m. (2:33 p.m. Swiss time) from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. But as the day gradually dawned on the orange and white SLS rocket, 98 meters high, lift-off had become increasingly unlikely.
Delay due to risk of lightning
The tanks of the mega-rocket have been filled with more than three million liters of ultra-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen. But the filling had started regarding an hour late because of too high a risk of lightning in the middle of the night. Then a leak caused a pause during the filling of the main stage with hydrogen, before a solution was found and the flow resumed.
Around 1 p.m., a new, decisive problem appeared: one of the four RS-25 engines, under the main stage of the rocket, might not reach the desired temperature, a necessary condition to be able to ignite it.
The countdown was then stopped, and following more than an hour and a half of waiting and trying to fix the problem, NASA Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson made the final decision to cancel. .
Thousands of people had made the trip to watch the show, including the Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris.
(AFP)
