NASA’s former Space Shuttle manager saw this delay coming.
The space agency scrubbed the much anticipated first launch of its colossal new megarocket, the Space Launch System, on Monday morning, Aug. 29, due to a fueling problem with one of the rocket’s engines. Wayne Hale, who ran flights for the retired Shuttle, recently gave 50-50 odds for the launch happening on its initial try. The next launch opportunity for the Artemis l mission, however, is quite soon, on Sept. 2.
“It’s the first launch of a new complex rocket and there are likely still bugs to be worked out. Sorry if that makes folks upset but best to be realistic,” Hale recently tweeted.
Indeed there are. NASA ran into buggy pre-launch testing issues this spring, too. But while it might be easy to criticize another delay, it’s common for kinks to be worked out during test launches. And, critically, NASA has the responsibility of demonstrating an extremely safe rocket: If this launch is successful, the space agency will put astronauts on its next launch to the moon (a mission called Artemis ll). By late 2025, NASA plans for astronauts to once again walk on the chalky lunar surface, this time in the moon’s shadowy south pole (Artemis ll).
This mission, Artemis l, seeks to prove that both the new Space Launch System rocket, or SLS, and the Orion spacecraft atop the rocket perform as planned and hold up to extreme space environs. Ultimately, NASA plans to use this colossal rocket to establish a permanent U.S. presence on and around the moon. After a 50-year lunar absence, SLS — though hugely expensive, delayed, and tangled in U.S. politics — will enable NASA to restart its human exploration of deep space.
This story is developing and will be updated.
