NASA says a risky repair job appears to have fixed the hydrogen fuel leak that threatened to delay a third attempt to send the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft on a test flight known as Artemis I, and liftoff could be minutes away.
The SLS was scheduled to launch the unpiloted Orion to the moon during a two-hour launch window Wednesday that opened at 1:04 a.m. Eastern. Loading the 322-foot-tall rocket with more than 750,000 gallons of cryogenic fuel began around 4 p.m. The rocket had to be slowly filled with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant. Hydrogen, a tiny molecule, has created problems for NASA during the last two launch attempts.
NASA later said fuel was again flowing into the SLS rocket. Separately, the Space Force was working to repair a bad ethernet switch that took a critical radar system offline, which delayed the launch past the opening of the window. After two previous launch attempts and dealing with delays from hurricanes Ian and Nicole, NASA managers say they are hopeful that this time, everything will line up for the mega moon rocket designed to return humans to the moon by 2025.
"We're going to go when we're ready. We're learning the systems of this vehicle," NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development Jim Free told reporters earlier this week. Orion will travel about 40,000 miles beyond the moon's far side, farther than any human-rated spacecraft. This lunar orbit is known as the distance retrograde orbit or DRO. Photographers line up their shots of the SLS rocket at KSC's press site. The weather continues to be nearly perfect for a rocket launch that requires no rain, low wind speeds and specific temperatures.
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