CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - AUGUST 30: NASA's Artemis I rocket sits on launch pad 39-B at Kennedy Space Center on August 30, 2022 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Artemis I launch was scrubbed yesterday after an issue was found on one of the rocket's four engines. The next launch opportunity is on September 2.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Another Shot To The Moon
The space agency declared on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that it is now planning to launch Artemis 1 on Saturday, Sept. 3, a key mission whose initial liftoff attempt on Monday was thwarted by technical difficulty.
If all goes as planned, Artemis 1 will lift off during a two-hour window that starts at 2:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT) from Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.
The NASA Artemis program seeks to establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by the end of the 2020s. Artemis 1 will serve as the program's inaugural mission.
Additionally, it is the debut launch of NASA's massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which will carry an unmanned Orion spacecraft on a lengthy mission to lunar orbit and back.
The eagerly awaited Artemis 1 was scheduled to launch on Aug. 29 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but during the countdown, a problem with one of the four RS-25 engines in the SLS's core stage forced the Artemis 1 team to abort the mission.
One of the four RS-25 engines that bolster the SLS core stage had a problem because it wasn't cooling to its requisite low temperature.
According to mission crew members, this thermal conditioning prevents shock when the engines light up by "bleeding" in supercold liquid hydrogen propellant.
John Honeycutt, manager of the SLS program at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, said in a news conference that while engines 1, 2, and 4 came close to the mark during the countdown, number 3 remained relatively far out of bounds, at about minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 230 Celsius).
However, Honeycutt and other mission team members believe they have it under control at this point. They said that Engine 3's defective temperature sensor was to blame for the mission's delayed launch.
The team will make a few changes to the countdown strategy, such as starting the engine cooling process 30 to 45 minutes earlier than its first launch.
Over the next few days, they will also keep gathering data and creating scenario maps to ensure that the current course of action is justified, according to Honeycutt.
The Artemis program has cost about $40 billion since it began in 2017. NASA's major goal will be to establish a sustained presence on the Moon with a space station and a lunar base camp as part of a larger push to prioritize human space flight.
