It is anticipated that the launch will take place on the following Friday (2). The mission was held up because of an issue with one of the megarocket's motors.
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| [NASA's Artemis I mission rocket] |
NASA's Artemis I mission, which was scheduled to begin this coming Monday morning (29) as the first stage in the program that promises to return people to the Moon, has been canceled. The countdown hasn't yet begun, and NASA has already made this decision.
At least for the immediate future. The launch is currently scheduled to take place on the following Friday (2); however, if there are any new issues, it will take place on September 5.
The countdown clock that was supposed to indicate how many minutes were left until the launch of the "most powerful rocket" ever constructed by the space agency, the Space Launch System - SLS, did not move for approximately thirty minutes while a crowd of onlookers awaited the launch of the mission. This was done so that technical issues could be evaluated.
Earlier, NASA said on a social network that the organization's engineers were investigating an issue with liquid hydrogen in the number 3 engine of the megarocket. This problem was discovered earlier.
However, about ten o'clock in the morning Eastern Time (ET), NASA acknowledged in an official broadcast that the launch would be postponed.
During a live broadcast that took place not long after the cancellation was announced, NASA Director Bill Nelson said that the agency does not "launch [something into space] if it is not all right."
The space agency claims that the SLS megarocket is continuing to operate in its "stable and safe" settings despite the technical issues that have been encountered.
The Space Launch System (SLS) is the first crew-ready rocket that has been sent to the moon by the NASA in over half a century, despite the fact that the first journey to the moon did not include any astronauts.
Therefore, assuming everything goes according to plan the second time, it is anticipated that the same mega-rocket would send people back to the lunar soil in the year 2025. Among those astronauts will be the first woman and the first black person.