Space Launch System

Engineers are making progress resolving mostly ground-system problems that derailed three earlier attempts to fuel the agency’s new Space Launch System moon rocket for a dress rehearsal countdown. NASA managers said last week they’re hopeful about making a fourth attempt by mid-June.

NASA rolled the giant new rocket for the Artemis 1 moon mission off the launch pad back inside the Vehicle Assembly Building before dawn Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center. Officials hope to complete repairs in time to launch the Artemis 1 test flight to the moon no earlier than August, about two months later than previously scheduled.

These images from pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center show NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket awaiting a rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs.

Ground teams moved a diesel-powered crawler-transporter underneath the Space Launch System moon rocket Sunday on pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, preparing the towering launcher for a return to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs.

NASA will move its first giant Space Launch System moon rocket off the launch pad and back to its hangar at the Kennedy Space Center as soon as next Tuesday, giving teams an opportunity to resolve several problems discovered during three attempts to load super-cold propellants into the launcher earlier this month.

A hydrogen leak near the connection between NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket and its mobile launch platform foiled another attempt Thursday to pump cryogenic propellants into the towering mega-booster at the Kennedy Space Center.