Ground technicians at Kennedy Space Center readied on Saturday for a second attempt to launch NASA’s towering, next-generation moon rocket on its inaugural mission, expecting to have fixed engineering issues that had thwarted the first countdown five days earlier.
The 32-story Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion capsule were scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT), launching NASA’s ambitious moon-to-Mars programme Artemis 50 years after the last Apollo lunar mission.
The previous launch bid on Monday was cancelled due to technical issues, which forced a pause in the countdown and postponement of the uncrewed flight.
According to tests, workers have now repaired a faulty fuel line that contributed to Monday’s cancelled launch, said Jeremy Parsons, a deputy programme manager at the space centre, on Friday.
Two other major concerns with the rocket, a defective engine temperature sensor and minor cracks in the insulation foam, have been rectified to NASA’s satisfaction, Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin said Thursday night.
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