fuel leak NASA to abort the Artemis moon

A fuel leak causes NASA to abort the Artemis moon rocket launch once more.

A fuel leak causes NASA to abort the Artemis moon rocket launch once more.For the second time in a week, NASA has canceled an attempt to launch its massive, next-generation rocketship, citing a persistent fuel leak that the space agency says will delay the launch of its moon-to-Mars Artemis program by at least several weeks.

About three hours before the scheduled 2:17 p.m., preflight operations for the 32-story Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida, were put on hold until 18:17 EDT (18:17 GMT) liftoff time.

 A half-century after the last lunar mission of Apollo, the predecessor of the Artemis program, the unmanned test flight, intended to send the capsule to the moon and back, was to have been the first flight of the SLS and Orion.

However, after analyzing data from the most recent issues, NASA came to the conclusion that the new hydrogen leak was too complicated and time-consuming to resolve on the launch pad. According to an associate NASA administrator, Jim Free, at a late-afternoon briefing, the delay means the earliest opportunity to try again would come during the next launch period, which spans from September 19 to 30, or during a subsequent October window.

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He added that due to “range” regulations at Cape Canaveral, which set a time restriction on how long a rocket may remain at its launch tower before completing fresh interior safety inspections, the postponement would also require rolling the spaceship back into its assembly facility.

In order to prevent a scheduling problem with the following International Space Station crew scheduled to launch early that month, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated that a reversal would delay. At the briefing, Nelson added, “We’re not going to launch until it’s correct, and that is ordinary operating procedure, and will continue to be.”

From the Moon to Mars

Artemis I marks a significant turning point for NASA’s post-Apollo human spaceflight program, despite its technical difficulties, after decades spent concentrating on low-Earth orbit with space shuttles and the International Space Station.

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Although many experts think the deadline would certainly slip, Artemis, named for the goddess who was Apollo’s twin sister in ancient Greek mythology, hopes to bring humans back to the moon’s surface as early as 2025.

 Artemis, however, was less science-focused than Artemis and was a product of the Cold War space competition between the US and the USSR.

The goal of the new moon program is to eventually establish a long-term lunar base of operations as a stepping stone to even more ambitious human missions to Mars. It has gained the support of corporate partners like SpaceX and the space agencies of Europe, Canada, and Japan.

One of the essential first steps is the SLS-Orion spacecraft launch. The 5.75 million pound spacecraft will undergo a strenuous test flight on its first trip to show that it can safely transport humans by going beyond the spacecraft’s design limitations.

The SLS, which NASA describes as the most potent and sophisticated rocket ever created, is the largest new vertical launch system the agency has created since the Saturn V of the Apollo period.

Source: geo tv