NASA’s historic lunar mission put on hold due to engine bleed

International

oi-Deepika S

Cape
Canaveral,
Aug
29:
NASA’s
historic
lunar
mission
Artemis
1
was
put
on
hold
due
to
a
malfunctioning
RS-25
engine
on
the
Space
Launch
System
(SLS)
rocket.
The
engine
was
to
be
bled
with
liquid
hydrogen
and
oxygen
to
condition
it
before
launch
but
team
engineers
noticed
that
one
of
the
engines
was
not
bleeding
as
expected.

The
next
expected
launch
is
on
Friday,
September
2nd.

“The
launch
of
Artemis1
is
no
longer
happening
today
as
teams
work
through
an
issue
with
an
engine
bleed.
Teams
will
continue
to
gather
data,
and
we
will
keep
you
posted
on
the
timing
of
the
next
launch
attempt,
tweeted
NASA.

The
launch
of

#Artemis
I
is
no
longer
happening
today
as
teams
work
through
an
issue
with
an
engine
bleed.
Teams
will
continue
to
gather
data,
and
we
will
keep
you
posted
on
the
timing
of
the
next
launch
attempt.

https://t.co/tQ0lp6Ruhv
pic.twitter.com/u6Uiim2mom

—
NASA
(@NASA)

August
29,
2022

The
rocket
was
set
to
lift
off
on
a
mission
to
put
a
crew
capsule
into
orbit
around
the
moon.
The
launch
represents
a
milestone
in
America’s
quest
to
put
astronauts
back
on
the
lunar
surface
for
the
first
time
since
the
Apollo
programme
ended
50
years
ago.

NASA’s
assistant
launch
director,
Jeremy
Graeber,
said
after
the
repeated
struggles
with
the
first
leak
that
the
space
agency
would
have
to
decide
whether
to
go
forward
with
the
Monday
morning
launch.

“We
have
a
lot
of
work
to
get
to
that
point,”
Graeber
cautioned.
If
NASA
scrubbed
Monday’s
launch,
the
next
attempt
wouldn’t
be
until
Friday
at
the
earliest.

NASA
to
deliberately
crash
spacecraft
into
asteroid
to
divert
its
movement:
Where
to
watch
this
event?

The
322-foot
spaceship
is
the
most
powerful
rocket
ever
built
by
NASA,
out-muscling
even
the
Saturn
V
that
took
the
Apollo
astronauts
to
the
moon.
No
astronauts
were
inside
the
rocket’s
Orion
capsule.
Instead,
the
test
dummies,
fitted
with
sensors
to
measure
vibration,
cosmic
radiation
and
other
conditions,
were
strapped
in
for
the
six-week
mission,
scheduled
to
end
with
the
capsule’s
splashdown
in
the
Pacific
in
October.

Even
though
no
one
was
on
board,
thousands
of
people
jammed
the
coast
to
see
the
rocket
soar.
Vice
President
Kamala
Harris
was
expected
among
the
VIPs.

The
launch
is
the
first
flight
in
NASA’s
21st-century
moon-exploration
programme,
named
Artemis
after
Apollo’s
mythological
twin
sister.
Assuming
the
test
goes
well,
astronauts
will
climb
aboard
for
the
second
flight
and
fly
around
the
moon
and
back
as
soon
as
2024.

A
two-person
lunar
landing
could
follow
by
the
end
of
2025.
The
problems
seen
Monday
were
reminiscent
of
NASA’s
space
shuttle
era,
when
hydrogen
fuel
leaks
disrupted
countdowns
and
delayed
a
string
of
launches
back
in
1990.
Launch
director
Charlie
Blackwell-Thompson
and
her
team
also
had
to
deal
with
a
communication
problem
involving
the
Orion
capsule.

Engineers
scrambled
to
understand
an
11-minute
delay
in
the
communication
lines
between
launch
control
and
Orion
that
cropped
up
late
Sunday.
Though
the
problem
had
cleared
by
Monday
morning,
NASA
needed
to
know
why
it
happened
before
committing
to
a
launch.