NASA scrubs launch Artemis 1
October 17, 2022
After several scratched dates, NASA has announced that Artemis 1, which is a planned uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission, will attempt to launch on Nov. 14.
Originally, the spacecraft was set to launch on Aug. 29, but NASA rescheduled it due to a liquid hydrogen leak. The second launch was supposed to be Sept. 3; however, due to the same problem of a liquid hydrogen leak, they couldn’t go on with it. The third launch attempt was Oct. 3, but they then scrubbed it due to Hurricane Ian and the same liquid hydrogen leak.
The Artemis 1 is going to be an unmanned mission. Once the rocket launches, it will take 41 days, three hours and 20 minutes to get to the moon. This will be the first spaceflight in NASA‘s Artemis program, and the first flight of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the complete Orion spacecraft.
According to NASA’s website, engineering teams first encountered a liquid hydrogen leak in August while loading the propellant into the core stage of the SLS rocket. Multiple troubleshooting efforts to address the area of the leak by reseating a seal in the quick disconnect cavity where liquid hydrogen is fed into the rocket did not fix the issue. NASA engineers are continuing to gather additional data.