Space Launch System

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.

NASA has decided to roll the SLS moon rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building as Florida continues to be threatened by Hurricane Ian.

Engineers filled up the Artemis 1 moon rocket with more than 750,000 gallons of super-cold propellants in a tanking test Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center after successfully troubleshooting another hydrogen leak. NASA’s launch director said she was “extremely encouraged” by the test, but officials have not yet committed to another attempt to launch the uncrewed test flight to the moon at the next opportunity Sept. 27.

NASA’s launch team says they got a hydrogen leak under control in a fueling line near the bottom of the Artemis 1 moon rocket’s core stage, allowing engineers to continue with a cryogenic tanking test on pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. The leak temporarily halted operations to load more than 750,000 gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the Space Launch System.

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 officials said Thursday they hope to try again to launch the Artemis 1 moon rocket from the Kennedy Space Center as soon as Sept. 23 or 27, but that schedule comes with two big caveats: A repair to a leaky liquid hydrogen fueling line must hold tight during a tanking test next weekend, and the Space Force’s Eastern Range has to extend the certification of batteries on the moon rocket’s flight safety system.

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 says it will carry out repairs and tests on the Artemis 1 rocket at the launch pad rather than immediately rolling back to the hangar. The agency needs the Space Force to extend the certification of flight termination batteries if it wants to make another launch attempt in September. Otherwise the rocket will have to return to the assembly building and face a lengthy delay.

The first unpiloted mission for NASA’s Artemis lunar program aims to prove out the most powerful rocket to ever launch from U.S. soil, and test the function of a human-rated spacecraft traveling more than 40,000 miles beyond the far side of the moon before blazing back through Earth’s atmosphere at nearly 25,000 mph.

Italian engineers are expecting a series of spectacular photos from a tiny satellite that will be released to fly in sync with the interim cryogenic propulsion stage that propels the Orion capsule and European Service Module to the moon from Earth orbit.