Steve Seipel | NASA NASA is postponing its Artemis I moon mission again after making a second attempt to launch the unmanned rover from the ground on Saturday. The space agency is working to debut the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion capsule for a trip that would last more than a month around the Moon. As NASA was refueling the rocket Saturday morning, the agency’s team spotted hydrogen fuel leaking from the engine compartment. NASA made several attempts to fix the leak, but time ran out before the launch window that was set to open at 2:17 p.m. ET. NASA aborted a first launch attempt on Monday after it was unable to resolve a temperature problem detected with one of the rocket’s four liquid-fuel engines, discovered less than two hours before the countdown. It was unclear whether NASA will be able to make another attempt at its next launch opportunities on Monday or Tuesday. If NASA decides not to try again in the coming days, the agency will likely drop the 32-story-tall rocket back into the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a delay of weeks or more. The uncrewed launch is set to mark the debut of the most powerful rocket ever assembled and kick off NASA’s long-awaited return to the lunar surface. It is the first mission in NASA’s Artemis lunar program, which is scheduled to land the agency’s astronauts on the Moon by its third mission in 2025.
