The Artemis rocket, which was postponed in August and whose launch date was taken to September 3, was delayed again as you know. Again, the task of Artemis, which was postponed, was to go to the Moon again. The official statement from NASA about the second delay finally came.
In these statements, NASA included the reason for the delay and when the next attempt could be made. Let’s take a look at NASA’s statement about the cancellation of the Artemis Moon mission together.
The delay is due to a massive hydrogen leak.
Artemis’ attempt to launch on August 29 was aborted after engineers noticed a problem with one of the rocket’s four engines. The second launch attempt, which took place yesterday, was also delayed by a persistent hydrogen leak, which Artemis mission manager Michael Sarafin described at a press conference as “major”.
In fact, a small hydrogen leak was also noticed during the test on August 29, but this time it was much larger. So NASA made a statement about when the next launch attempt of Artemis I will be, which we understand will have to wait until the issues are resolved. This revealed that the next attempt would not be soon, and the repair could take weeks.
“We won’t launch until we’re sure the problem is resolved,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said at the press conference after the failed launch attempt. “Safety comes first in our space program,” he said. What are you thinking? Please do not forget to share your thoughts with us in the comments.