CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s mission back to the Moon is on hold after the launch of the Artemis-1 rocket was scrubbed Monday morning over concerns with the rocket’s engine.
Officials stressed that the launch was an uncrewed test flight and it is not uncommon for technical problems to arise during launch attempts.
“We don’t launch until it’s right,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “We are stressing and testing this rocket and the spacecraft in a way that you would never do it with the human crew on board. That’s the purpose of a test flight.”
Nelson said they troubleshooted several issues, including lightning hitting the launchpad and software concerns, but the engine issue will need more time to fix.
KIRO 7′s Ranji Sinha spoke with one of the lead developers at Redmond-based Aerojet Rocketdyne, which worked on the propulsion system and engines for the Artemis rockets, after the launch was scrubbed.
“These engines in this rocket is brand new and every time we put it together on the pad we’re going to learn something new,” said Don Mahr, the company’s program director. “NASA and everyone doesn’t think it’s an engine problem, they think it’s a system that may be there, but they’re still investigating and we expect to hear more on that tomorrow.”
NASA officials did stress that they don’t believe anything is wrong with the engines. Launch control officials just couldn’t cool the engine down enough for it to take on the super cool fuel that would launch the rocket.
AJR says it knows scrubbing a launch is part of the process and it will help NASA as it tries to solve the issue with getting fuel to the engines.
The next potential launch window is on Friday at 12:48 p.m. Eastern or 9:48 a.m. Pacific, and NASA officials said that is indeed in play for a launch.
The next window after that could come Sept. 5, potentially at 5:12 p.m. Eastern or 2:12 p.m. Pacific.
©2022 Cox Media Group
