For the second time in five days, NASA on Saturday halted an ongoing countdown and postponed a planned attempt to launch the first test flight of its next-generation giant rocket, the Artemis program’s first mission from the moon to Mars. The latest launch attempt of the 32-story-tall Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule was cleared after repeated attempts by technicians to fix a leak of supercooling hydrogen propellant liquid that seeped into the vehicle’s fuel tanks on the main stage. In addition to the struggle to fix the leak itself, the difficulty caused mission managers to fall behind in the countdown, leaving very little time to complete pre-launch preparations. Pre-flight operations were suspended for the day about three hours before the targeted two-hour launch window was to open at 2:17 p.m. ET. There was no immediate word on a time frame for relaunching the mission, dubbed Artemis I. But NASA could schedule another attempt for Monday or Tuesday. An initial launch attempt on Monday was scuttled by 11th-hour technical difficulties that emerged during the countdown, including a different leaking fuel line, a faulty temperature sensor and some cracks in the insulation foam. NASA officials said those issues had previously been resolved to their satisfaction.
