TITUSVILLE, Fla. (WFLA) — NASA is pressing pause for now on attempting to launch Artemis I from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center.

The second attempt to launch NASA’s Artemis I mission from Kennedy Space Center was called off on Saturday, marking the second scrub of the mission this week. 

NASA officials confirmed during a Saturday evening briefing that they would not make any additional attempts to launch during the current launch period. The period closes on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

No official date has been set for the next launch attempt, but NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said Saturday that they are now looking at launch periods in late September and into October. The Artemis I team has to work around the SpaceX Crew-5 mission that’s scheduled to launch from Kennedy on Oct. 5.

The Artemis I mission management team was trying to launch the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft Saturday afternoon. The Artemis I mission will launch the SLS rocket – also called the mega moon rocket – and send the Orion spacecraft on a 37-day, 1.3-million mile test flight around the moon.

But as teams prepared to get the mission off the ground Saturday morning, they discovered a hydrogen line leak. NASA made three attempts to remedy the leak issue but were unable to do so.

NASA officials said the rocket will be rolled back to the vehicle assembly building for repairs.

What went wrong Monday?

Mission managers met several times this week to discuss Monday’s problems and analyze data recorded during the countdown before the mission was scrubbed. The team decided to move forward with a Saturday afternoon launch attempt. They did, however, update their procedures and timeline in response to Monday’s main issue involving one of the rocket engines apparently failing to cool down enough for launch.

A NASA helicopter flies past the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The launch was scrubbed. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)

“Teams will adjust the procedures to chill down the engines, also called the kick start bleed test, about 30 to 45 minutes earlier in the countdown during the liquid hydrogen fast fill phase for the core stage,” NASA explained. “This will to allow for additional time to cool the engines to appropriate temperatures for launch.”

SLS Program Manager John Honeycutt said he believes Monday’s problem was actually caused by a faulty sensor and expressed confidence that the four main engines are good to go.

“The way the sensor is behaving does not line up with the physics of the situation,” he said.

Artemis Program

Launch Pad 39B, the pad that Artemis I will launch from, is the same pad Apollo 10 launched from. The Apollo program was the last time humans stepped foot on the moon, more than 50 years ago. In Greek mythology, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo.

Under the new Artemis program, NASA plans to land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon. NASA is looking to establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface and use what they learn to eventually send astronauts to Mars.

Artemis I

Artemis I is NASA’s first step when it comes to achieving the goals of the Artemis program. It is an uncrewed mission, meaning there will be no humans on the flight. NASA calls it “the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to build a long-term human presence at the moon for decades to come.”

“The mission will demonstrate the performance of the SLS rocket and test Orion’s capabilities over the course of about six weeks as it travels about 40,000 miles beyond the moon and back to Earth,” NASA explained.

NASA’s new moon rocket was set to blast off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Monday morning. (AP)

On its website, NASA explains that the main goals of the mission are to “demonstrate Orion’s systems in a spaceflight environment” and to “ensure a safe re-entry, descent, splashdown and recovery.” This will help when it comes to future missions – including Artemis II, which will be the program’s first crewed flight around the moon.

Artemis I marks the first “integrated test” of NASA’s deep space exploration system. If the mission launches Saturday, NASA is looking at a splashdown on Oct. 11.

Deep space exploration system

The SLS rocket and Orion, along with the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center, make up NASA’s deep space exploration system.

The SLS rocket is described by NASA as the world’s most powerful rocket. According to the agency, it is the only rocket that can currently send the Orion spacecraft to the moon safely.

  • A comparison of the Saturn V and the new Moon rocket called the Space Launch System or SLS. (AP)
  • A cutaway of the Space Launch System or SLS. (AP)

“SLS is designed specifically for deep space missions with humans and will send the Orion spacecraft to the moon, which is nearly 1,000 times farther than where the International Space Station resides in low-Earth orbit,” NASA said. “The rocket will provide the power to help Orion reach a speed of 22,600 mph, to escape the pull of Earth’s gravity [and] send the spacecraft to the moon.”

Orion, the spacecraft that will launch atop the SLS rocket, was designed to carry humans to deep space, according to NASA. The agency says it was “specifically designed to sustain humans hundreds of thousands of miles from home.”