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NASA’s Massive Artemis Moon Rocket Grounded... Again

FAILURE TO LAUNCH

The historic launch is now slated for Monday.

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CHANDAN KHANNA

The launch of NASA’s hotly anticipated Artemis I mission back to the moon is once again delayed due to pesky fuel leaks on Saturday. Though originally slated to launch within a two hour window of 2:17 p.m. ET, a leak was spotted early in the morning after crews began fueling the rocket with liquid hydrogen. Engineers made three attempts to fix the issue but couldn’t get the leaking to stop. The fuel systems team recommended a “no go” for the mission after the third attempt. NASA has now delayed the launch of the massive 322-foot Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to Monday, which would be a week after the first attempt to get it off the ground on August 29. That launch was also delayed due to leaking fuel on the SLS. The latest launch scrub is yet another bump in the road for the agency’s historic mission back to the moon, which will include sending the first woman and person of color to the lunar surface.

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