Nasa halts historic Moon rocket launch as mega-rocket hits last-minute snag

NASA has had to put its highly anticipated Artemis 1 Moon mission on hold after it encountered problems at the fueling stage.

The launch of the huge Space Launch System rocket, along with the unmanned Orion capsule and European Service Module, was halted hours ahead of launch on Monday 29.

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Artemis I was originally expected to blast off at 8:33am ET (1:33pm BST) from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

A new launch time has not yet been set, but Nasa is believed to be pushing ahead with a Monday liftoff.

A two-hour launch window gives some flexibility for such setbacks.

Weather conditions are currently favourable, giving Nasa plenty of time to fire up the rocket’s engines if and when the issue is resolved.

Should the mission be cancelled, it will likely be pushed back to either September 2 or September 5.

Problems arose with the Space Launch System rocket when fueling began and a suspected leak was spotted.

This was later resolved. Nasa said on its live stream of the event that an engine cooling issue was causing the latest delay.

Stormy weather had already set the team back early on Monday.

The current countdown is being held at T-minus 40 minutes, with another scheduled hold set to take place at the 10-minute mark.

It’s at this point that Nasa will announce a new launch time.

According to Flordia Today, up to 500,000 went to Cape Canaveral in Florida in an attempt to watch the launch.