NASA's moon mission is DELAYED: Artemis II is pushed back to March after the wet dress rehearsal fails at the last minute
NASA's moon mission has been delayed, with the launch of Artemis II now pushed back by at least a month.
The space agency had been targeting a launch window between February 6 and 11, but will now aim for March.
The decision to delay the mission to send four astronauts around the moon came after the so–called 'wet dress rehearsal' failed at the last minute.
In a statement, NASA said: 'Engineers conducted a first run at terminal countdown operations during the test; however, the countdown stopped at 5 minutes left due to a spike in the liquid hydrogen leak rate.'
During a wet dress rehearsal, ground crews practice loading the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with propellant, running through a countdown, and emptying the fuel tanks.
However, after starting the rehearsal at 01:13 GMT (20:13 EST) on January 31, several issues quickly became apparent.
Cold weather at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida interfered with the fuelling process, leading to a liquid hydrogen leak that brought proceedings to a halt.
This delay means that the Artemis II crew – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen – will leave quarantine and will not travel to the Kennedy Space Centre as planned.
NASA's moon mission has been delayed, with the launch of Artemis II now pushed back by at least a month
On January 17, NASA spent 11.5 hours painstakingly transporting the SLS rocket four miles (6.4 km) between the hangar and the launchpad.
The wet dress rehearsal had already been pushed back several days due to unexpectedly cold weather, which can interfere with rocket systems and the interfaces that prevent propellant leaks.
But, after waiting for the rocket to warm up to a safe temperature, the crew began filling the SLS with over two million litres of supercooled liquid hydrogen, chilled to –252°C (–423°F).
Almost immediately, NASA noticed a liquid hydrogen leak in an interface used to transfer propellant into the rocket's core.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman wrote in a post on X: 'With more than three years between SLS launches, we fully anticipated encountering challenges.
'That is precisely why we conduct a wet dress rehearsal. These tests are designed to surface issues before flight and set up launch day with the highest probability of success.'
Fixing the unexpected leak involved stopping the flow of liquid hydrogen and allowing the rocket to warm up enough for the seals to reset and adjusting the propellant flow.
Eventually, the space agency did manage to fill all the tanks in the core and interim stage with fuel and the crew began their simulated countdown.
During a 'wet dress rehearsal', the Space Launch System rocket was fuelled and emptied. However, a liquid hydrogen leak brought the test to a halt with just five minutes left
The Artemis II crew – (left to right) Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman – will now leave the quarantine that they entered on January 21
But, with just five minutes left in the practice countdown, a sudden spike in the rate of liquid hydrogen leaking automatically stopped the launch sequence.
In addition to the hydrogen leak, NASA also found that one of the valves that maintains pressure in the Orion crew module required adjusting, leading to additional delays.
Engineers have also been plagued by dropouts of audio communication channels in the few weeks leading up to the test, and several more dropouts occurred during the rehearsal.
Mr Isaacman wrote in a post on X: 'As always, safety remains our top priority, for our astronauts, our workforce, our systems, and the public.
'As noted above, we will only launch when we believe we are as ready to undertake this historic mission.'
NASA now says that it needs more time to 'allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal'.
The crew will now be able to leave the quarantine, which they entered in Houston on January 11, and will re-enter about two weeks out from the next launch window.
Mr Isaacman added: 'The team will fully review the data, troubleshoot each issue encountered during WDR, make the necessary repairs, and return to testing.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman says that Artemis II will now conduct a second wet dress rehearsal and target the March launch window
'We expect to conduct an additional wet dress rehearsal and then target the March window.'
If Artemis II is not able to launch in March, NASA will aim for the final planned opportunity between April 1 and April 6.
Artemis II will be NASA's first manned lunar mission since the Apollo era over 50 years ago, although it will not involve landing on the moon.
When it eventually happens, the crew will board the Orion spacecraft and use NASA's Space Launch System rocket to launch out of the atmosphere and into orbit.
After orbiting Earth, Orion will fire its engines one last time in what is known as a 'translunar injection', kicking the craft out of Earth's orbit and on a looping path around the moon.
The spacecraft will spend four days drifting through space until it reaches lunar orbit, passing about 6,400 miles (10,400 km) behind the 'dark side' of the moon before heading back to Earth.
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