Nasa’s long-awaited moon shot with astronauts is off until at least March because of hydrogen fuel leaks that marred the dress rehearsal of its giant new rocket.
It was the same problem that delayed the Space Launch System rocket’s debut three years ago. That first test flight was grounded for months because of leaking hydrogen, which is highly flammable and dangerous.
“Actually, this one caught us off guard,” Nasa’s John Honeycutt said on Tuesday, hours after the test came to an abrupt halt at Kennedy Space Centre.
Until the fuel leaks, the space agency had been targeting as soon as this weekend for humanity’s first trip to the moon in more than half a century.
Nasa astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will now have to wait. Photo: Reuters
“When you’re dealing with hydrogen, it’s a small molecule. It’s highly energetic and we like it for that reason and we do the best we can,” Honeycutt explained.