Artemis I's launch to the Moon was scrubbed on Monday morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as engineers figured out a problem with one of four core engines at the base of the massive Space Launch System.
The two-hour launch window was set to open at 8:33 a.m. ET, but engineers worked from shortly after midnight to solve a problem attaining the proper temperature for launch in core engine #3. The next available launch window will be Friday.
The countdown was put on hold at T-minus 40 minutes as engineers were troubleshooting an "issue with an engine bleed," Derrol Nail at Mission Command said at 8:02 a.m.ET. Then at 8:35 a.m. he announced the launch director had scrubbed the mission but said the rocket was in stable condition. "The hydrogen bleed didn't happen" as required, he said.
At one point prior to the anticipated launch, Nail said ambient air had entered a foam collar near one of the engines and formed ice, then dissipated as vapor, but was not an actual crack in any engine.
Last week, NASA posted a four-minute video, “We are ready” on Twitter showing an animation of the projected launch and pathway 40,000 miles beyond the Moon before a return and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean offthe coast of San Diego.
A launch mission forecast Sunday morning had indicated an 80% chance of acceptable weather for the Monday launch, but weather was not a concern.
A launch will not happen during rain but lightning strikes are being watched carefully. On Saturday afternoon, lightning struck towers near the SLS rocket five times. NASA relies on 90 different weather indicators to make its forecasts, including using weather balloons and various radar systems that carefully watch the edge of storm clouds and can rely on a NASA plane to make observations.
NASA TV carries launch updates live online.
The Artemis I mission kicks off NASA’s ambitious program to return people to the Moon and land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon’s surface by the end of 2025, then eventually fly to Mars and beyond.
NASA officials estimated Artemis I and its Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft were produced with the help of 4,000 private companies, including many in the electronics field.
Each of the first four Artemis missions is expected to cost $4.1 billion, according to the NASA Inspector General in a report to Congress in March. The total program so far has cost taxpayers more than $20 billion.
The program’s costs have raised some criticism while some have questioned NASA’s priorities, including former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver. In a Scientific American interview released Thursday, Garver said the agency’s most urgent missions should include tasks to combat climate change, defend Earth against asteroids and develop other transformative technologies.
Asked her thoughts about the program as the Artemis I launch approaches, she responded:
“I am conflicted. I want to embrace this point in history that so many people have worked for—to have the capability to again go to the Moon. But for me, the opportunity cost in time and in dollars, competing with programs that would be so much more efficient, and the recognition that I do not see a realistic, sustainable path for this program—all that makes it hard.
“For the past 30-plus years of my career, when we were talking about going back to the moon, we were always going back to stay. Because we were going to reduce the cost. And it was going to be sustainable. And we were going to have worthy things to do there. I don’t feel like those pieces are in place yet.”