Articles by William Harwood

Faced with stormy weather ahead of soon-to-be Hurricane Ian, NASA managers Saturday ruled out a third attempt to launch the Artemis 1 moon rocket Tuesday but held open the option of making a run at blastoff on October 2, the current backup date.

Engineers are ready to reload NASA’s Artemis moon rocket with supercold fuel Wednesday to make sure a repaired liquid hydrogen quick-disconnect fitting is leak free, one of two requirements that must be met before the agency can make a third attempt to launch the huge booster September 27 on the program’s maiden moonshot.

NASA’s star-crossed Space Launch System moon rocket was grounded for the second time in five days Saturday, this time by a large hydrogen leak in a fuel line quick-disconnect fitting that will delay the $4.1 billion booster’s maiden flight by several weeks, likely into October.

NASA will make a second attempt to launch the agency’s giant Space Launch System rocket Saturday on a delayed test flight to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule on a flight around the moon and back, a major milestone in the agency’s ambitious Artemis program.

Engineers fueled the Space Launch System moon rocket for blastoff Monday on NASA’s long-overdue Artemis 1 test flight, but stormy weather, brief indications of a hydrogen leak, trouble cooling one of the four main engines and then a valve glitch forced managers to call off the countdown.

Even using the most powerful rocket NASA’s ever built, getting the agency’s unpiloted Orion spacecraft to the moon for the Artemis 1 test flight won’t be easy. It will hinge on a complex series of precisely orchestrated deep space maneuvers.