September 3, 2022, 15:49 PM
September 3, 2022, 15:49 PM
heThe launch from Cape Canaveral (Florida) of the unmanned lunar mission Artemis I scheduled for this Saturday (09.03.2022) was canceled due to the impossibility of stopping a leak detected in the conduit in time to provide fuel to the SLS rocket.
This is the second postponement for technical reasons for the mission that marks the start of the race for a future colonization of the terrestrial satellite.
The launch director canceled the Artemis I, approximately three hours before the window for the liftoff of the SLS rocket, with the Orion spacecraft at the tip.
According to the mission schedule, the next launch window opens on Monday, September 5, a holiday due to Labor Day in the United States. “Teams found a liquid hydrogen leak while loading propellant into the core stage of the rocket. Space Launch System (SLS),” NASA explained.
The “multiple efforts” to fix the problem by repositioning the seal were unsuccessful, as verified by pumping fuel back into the rocket, “the launch director has canceled the Artemis I launch attempt scheduled for today,” the space agency said in a message on the Artemis I mission website.
As reported on that website this morning, mission engineers tried to stop the leak of liquid hydrogen on at least three occasions.
The purpose of Artemis I is to test the capabilities of the powerful SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, 98 meters high, and the Orion spacecraft, with capacity for four astronauts.
As happened last August 29, when a first attempt had to be canceled due to failure of one of the four RS-25 engines of the powerful SLS rocket, the so-called “Coast of Space”, the region where the space center is located, was filled today with visitors eager to watch the launch.
