NASA postpones Artemis 1 moon mission but they're 'not giving up yet'

The launch of Artemis 1 – originally scheduled for 29 August – has been cancelled due to an engine malfunction. The next possible date of departure could be as early as 2 September or as late as a few weeks from now, says The Indian Express.

What is the Artemis Mission?

Artemis 1 is the first human-rated moon rocket to come from NASA in half a century. The much-anticipated launch on 29 August was intended to be the first mission of many to the moon. Although Artemis 1 is unmanned - meaning no humans will be inside – future Artemis missions plan to return humans to the moon, including the first woman to walk on its surface.

This time around, there will be three life-sized dummies inside Artemis' Orion capsule, which has travelled around Earth before in 2014. The dummies are named Helga, Zoro, and Moonikin Campos – in honor of NASA engineer, Arturo Campos, who helped return Apollo 13 to Earth safely.

The Artemis 1 spacecraft is designed to travel approximately 65,000 kilometers to the moon and back, a journey which is planned to take 42 days.

Why was it cancelled?

According to The Guardian, a faulty ‘engine bleed’ was detected by the spacecraft’s engineers when 2.76 million liters of fuel was being loaded into the rocket at its base in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This means the engine’s temperature would not have adjusted properly during liftoff, which could have rendered the mission unsuccessful.

NASA’s Artemis mission manager, Mike Sarafin, also reported that there was a problem with a vent valve in the inner engine tank. He stated yesterday:

The combination of not being able to get the engine three chilled down and then the vent valve issue caused us to pause today.

A readiness review is scheduled to be conducted this afternoon, and Sarafin remains hopeful that the launch will take place later this week:

Friday is definitely in play…We’re not giving up yet.

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