NASA called off the second attempt to launch an ambitious test flight of its new moon rocket yesterday, this time because of a stubborn leak that delayed fueling.
The space agency hoped to launch its Artemis 1 moon mission atop a towering Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket at 2:17 p.m. EDT yesterday, but a hydrogen fuel leak detected about seven hours before liftoff thwarted the attempt.
NASA engineers repeatedly tried to staunch the fuel leak during the Artemis 1 countdown but all three attempts failed. The delay, the second this week for NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission, means the agency will have to wait until Monday at the earliest to make its next launch attempt.
NASA has a 90-minute window to launch Artemis 1 on Monday, with liftoff occurring at 5:12 p.m. EDT.