NASA officials announced Saturday is the new launch date for Artemis I after the moon mission blast-off was delayed earlier this week.
Mike Sarafin, mission manager for Artemis I, said on Tuesday the mission crew agreed on various initiatives to remedy problems found during the scrubbed launch in Florida on Monday.
NASA: ARTEMIS ROCKET COULD TRY LAUNCHING AGAIN IN JUST FOUR DAYS
“We agreed on what was called ‘option one,’ which was to operationally change the loading procedure and start our engine chill down earlier. We also agreed to do some work on the pad to address the leak that we saw on the hydrogen tail service mast umbilical and we also agreed to move the launch day to Saturday, September the 3rd,” he said.
Sarafin also made clear the plans could be adjusted further if the crew is not confident by Thursday.
“We are gonna reconvene the mission management team on Thursday, September the 1st to review our flight rationale and our overall readiness,” Sarafin said.
The Monday launch attempt for Artemis I, featuring a Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, was scrubbed with NASA citing concerns with the engine bleed, a heating process for the fuel burning part of the rocket, and weather.
Artemis I is scheduled to be the first mission out of the Artemis program, which aims to bring NASA astronauts back to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The Artemis I will be an unmanned mission which will be a test run of systems for the space agency’s return to the moon.
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The Monday scrubbed launch is the latest in a series of delays which have plagued NASA’s attempts to return to the moon for the first time in nearly half a century.
