An unannounced test of NASA’s towering Space Launch System rocket, which is designed to soon carry astronauts on missions to the moon, has uncovered another problem.
On February 13, ground crews at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida supplied the 322-foot-long rocket with some liquid hydrogen to see if recent repairs to the spacecraft had fixed a hydrogen leak discovered during pre-launch testing earlier this month.
However, unexpectedly, operators stumbled upon a problem with ground support equipment that could cause more trouble for a critical lunar mission that is already at least a month behind its target launch date. The mission, called Artemis 2, will send three Americans and one Canadian on a 10-day journey around the moon.
Artemis 2 is the first manned mission to the moon in more than 50 years and will be the first manned launch in NASA’s multibillion-dollar program to eventually return astronauts to the lunar surface.
“There is still a lot of work to be done to prepare for this historic mission,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman posted on the social media site X. “We will not launch unless we are ready, and astronaut safety remains the top priority.” As NASA prepares to return to the moon, we will keep everyone informed. “
Here’s the latest news on the Artemis 2 rocket launch, as the mission has been delayed from February to at least March.
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When is the launch date for Artemis? Moon landing mission postponed to March
NASA officials have postponed the launch of Artemis 2 to the moon from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to March, originally scheduled for liftoff in February. According to NASA’s current schedule, the mission could take off as early as March 6.
However, NASA has yet to announce an official launch date.
Why has NASA delayed the Artemis 2 mission? Hydrogen leakage in SLS
The mission was delayed by at least a month after NASA conducted a critical fuel test in early February, known as a wet rehearsal, that discovered problems with the 322-foot-long Space Launch System rocket.
NASA’s elaborate launch-day rehearsal, designed to allow ground teams to assess whether the SLS was ready for takeoff, eventually revealed a hydrogen leak inside the rocket’s 212-foot core stage. The problem arose when 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant were added to the vehicle, which was later depleted.
The rocket has been orbiting vertically on Pad 39B since mid-January and has not yet needed to be transported back to the agency’s massive Vehicle Assembly Building, where the spacecraft is ready for launch.
NASA engineers working on Space Launch System rocket
No new launch date will be committed until NASA conducts another wetsuit rehearsal and completes a pre-launch analysis called a flight readiness review.
NASA said ground teams have been working on the SLS rocket since the first pre-launch countdown test, replacing seals where operators “found hydrogen concentrations higher than allowed” and assessing the cause of the leak.
NASA also conducted an unscheduled “confidence test” on Thursday, February 12, in which the rocket’s core-stage liquid hydrogen tank was “partially filled” to evaluate areas for seal replacement, the agency said in its latest mission blog post.
NASA said the test also identified an issue in which ground support equipment “reduced the flow of liquid hydrogen into the rocket.” Engineers expect to clear the liquid propellant from the rocket over the weekend and continue to inspect equipment on the ground before replacing the filter suspected of causing the problem.
A second wet dress rehearsal has not yet been scheduled.
Who will participate in the Artemis 2 mission? Astronauts leave quarantine
The crew of Artemis 2 includes three Americans and one Canadian. NASA astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen entered quarantine at Johnson Space Center in Houston on January 21 to avoid contracting the disease before launch.
Postponing the mission to March means the astronauts have ended their quarantine at Johnson Space Center in Houston, a protocol that precedes spaceflights to ensure crew members avoid contracting the disease. They will re-enter quarantine about two weeks before their next launch and then fly to Kennedy Space Center.
What is the mission of Artemis?
NASA’s Artemis program is the agency’s ambitious plan to return Americans to the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo era in 1972.
Instead of landing, the Artemis 2 astronauts will undertake a 10-day trip around the moon to test systems and hardware for future expeditions to the lunar surface. The Orion capsule (manufactured by Lockheed Martin) that the crew will fly will fly some 4,700 miles past the far side of the moon, taking its passengers to the farthest point in space before returning to Earth.
The mission comes more than three years after Artemis 1 launched from the Kennedy Space Center on November 16, 2022, and in its first test, the Orion capsule performed a lunar orbit mission without a crew.
The moon landing will take place during Artemis 3, and President Donald Trump has said he hopes to achieve it before the end of his second term.
Eric Lagatta is Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact him at elagatta@usatodayco.com. Sign up for the free Florida Today newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: When will NASA’s Artemis 2 moon landing be launched? New issues emerge after Florida SLS testing
