NASA’s New Moon rocket suffered another dangerous fuel leak on Saturday, forcing launch controllers to abort their second attempt to send a crew capsule into lunar orbit with test dummies. The first attempt earlier in the week was also marred by a hydrogen leak, but those leaks were elsewhere on the 98-meter-long rocket, the most powerful ever built by NASA. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the repair work could lead to an October launch. Mission leaders planned to meet later in the day to decide on a course of action. After Tuesday, a two-week launch blackout period begins. Meanwhile, extensive leak inspections and repairs could require the missile to be hauled out of the hangar and back into the hangar. That would push the flight into October, Nelson said. “We’ll go when it’s ready. We won’t go until then and especially now on a test flight because we’re going to stress it and test it … and make sure it’s right before we put four people on top of it,” Nelson said. . He added: “This is part of our space program: Be ready for the grind.” NASA wants to send the crew capsule atop the rocket around the moon, pushing it to the limit before the astronauts board the next flight. If the five-week demonstration with test dummies is successful, astronauts could fly around the moon in 2024 and land on it in 2025. Humans last walked on the moon 50 years ago. Launch manager Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and her team had just begun loading nearly 1 million gallons of fuel into the Space Launch System rocket at dawn when the leak appeared in the engine compartment at the bottom. Ground controllers tried to plug it the same way they handled previous leaks: by stopping and restarting the flow of ultra-cold liquid hydrogen in hopes of closing the gap around a seal in the supply line. They tried it twice, actually, and also shot helium through the line. But the leak continued. Blackwell-Thompson finally stopped the countdown after three to four hours of futile effort. During Monday’s launch attempt, hydrogen fuel escaped from another part of the rocket. Technicians tightened the components last week, but Blackwell-Thompson cautioned she wouldn’t know if everything was tight until Saturday’s refueling. Hydrogen molecules are extremely small – the smallest there are – and even the tiniest gap or crevice can give way. NASA’s space shuttles, now retired, were plagued by hydrogen leaks. The New Moon rocket uses the same type of main engines. Adding to the problem on Monday, a sensor indicated that one of the rocket’s four engines was too hot, but engineers later confirmed that it was actually quite cold. The launch team planned to ignore the faulty sensor this time and rely on other instruments to ensure each main engine was properly cooled. But the countdown never got that far. Mission managers acknowledged the added risk of the engine issue as well as a separate problem: cracks in the rocket’s insulating foam. But they acknowledged that other problems – such as fuel leaks – could cause another delay. That didn’t stop thousands from jamming the coast to watch the Space Launch System rocket soar. Local authorities were expecting huge crowds due to the long Labor Day holiday weekend. The $4.1 billion test flight is the first step in NASA’s Artemis program for renewed lunar exploration, named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology. Twelve astronauts walked on the moon during NASA’s Apollo program, the last time in 1972. Artemis – years behind schedule and billions over budget – aims to establish a permanent human presence on the moon, with crews eventually spending weeks there at a time. It is considered training for Mars. —— The Associated Press Health and Science Section is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Education Division. AP is solely responsible for all content.
