NASA will try to launch Artemis again on Saturday, Sept. 3
By Ben Turner published 1 day ago
NASA believes that a change in fueling procedures should fix the problem
NASA will make its second attempt at launching its 'mega moon rocket' this Saturday (Sept. 3.), the space agency announced, just days after scrubbing the rocket's first liftoff attempt following an engine issue.
The Artemis 1 rocket is made up of the six-person Orion capsule perched atop the 30-story Space Launch System (SLS) — dubbed the 'mega moon rocket' — and was initially scheduled to embark on its maiden voyage to the moon and back on Monday (Aug. 29). But engineers were unable to cool one of the rocket's four core stage RS-25 engines down to a safe temperature in time for launch. That issue, along with poor weather conditions, forced NASA to cancel the launch just two minutes into the spacecraft's two-hour launch window, NASA officials said at a news conference on Tuesday (Aug. 30).
The rocket's new window for a second attempt will be on Sept 3., one day later than the earliest available window of Friday (Sept. 2.), which NASA ruled out due to a high risk of adverse weather conditions.
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NASA views this flight as the first of three missions that will be a vital testbed for the hardware, software and ground systems that are intended to one day transport the first humans to Mars and beyond. The upcoming uncrewed Artemis 1 test flight — part of the Artemis program named after the twin sister of the ancient Greek god Apollo — will be followed by Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 in 2024 and 2025/2026 respectively. Artemis 2 will make the same journey as Artemis 1, but with a four-person human crew, and Artemis 3 will send the first woman and the first person of color to land on the moon's south pole.
https://www.livescience.com/nasa-announces-second-artemis-launch-date
