DELAYS TO LAUNCH
The original Artemis launch date was 6 February, but it was initially pushed back two days because a bitter cold spell in Florida delayed the wet dress rehearsal.
The rehearsal finally began on 2 February and was expected to involve NASA teams practicing loading and removing more than 700,000 gallons of super-cold fuel over two days.
However, the testing was cut short due to a liquid hydrogen leak.
Providing an update on 2 February, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said: “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.”
He added: “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.”
Mr Isaacman said NASA would make the necessary repairs and return to testing, before conducting an additional rehearsal.
Crucial flaws during a test flight three years ago had already put Artemis II behind schedule.
The test flight in 2022, without humans on board, identified significant problems with the Orion crew capsule’s life support system and heat shield, which required design modifications to fix.
The weather is a crucial factor between a launch or a delay.
NASA has a detailed weather criterion to consider factors including the temperature, wind, precipitation, lightning, clouds and solar activity, to check whether a launch is safe or not.
If there is any rain, the launch will likely not go ahead.