ORLANDO, Fla. — All signs were pointing to optimism for NASA’s second shot at a moonshot on Saturday, but a familiar foe forced another scrub for the Artemis I flight from Kennedy Space Center. Now the rocket may be forced to head back to the Vehicle Assembly Building with its next launch opportunity uncertain.
“We will not be launching in this launch period,” said NASA’s Jim Free, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, noting no attempt would be possible this week. “It’s definitely off the table.”
A liquid hydrogen leak detected during NASA’s attempts to load the Space Launch System rocket’s core stage with the required 733,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants had engineers scrambling to find a fix.
