The recent launch plans by NASA has again been delayed on Saturday as they have also resumed their second effort to get their new 30-story rocket off the ground and while also sending its uncrewed test capsule toward the Moon.
It had also been revealed that some of the engineers detected a fuel leak that potentially could lead to a new delay.
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With millions of people around the globe and hundreds of thousands on some of the nearby beaches waiting for the historic launch of the massive Space Launch System (SLS), a massive fuel leak which had been detected near the base of the rocket had been found as ultra-cold liquid hydrogen was being pumped in.
NASA said engineers would “stop flowing liquid hydrogen to the tank, close the valve used to fill and drain it,” then try to reseal it.
The space agency had also offered no information on the likelihood of a new delay in the Artemis program — which has also been aimed to be the predecessor to eventually returning a human crew to the Moon — following Monday’s aborted effort.
Saturday’s launch is still scheduled for 2:17 pm (1817 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It can be delayed by up to two hours if necessary.
“Our team is ready,” Jeremy Parsons, deputy manager of exploration ground systems at Kennedy Space Center, had said Friday.
“They are getting better with every attempt and actually performed superbly during launch countdown number one… I think if the conditions with weather and the hardware align, we’ll absolutely go.”
Though the area around the launch site will be closed to the public, an estimated 400,000 people were gathering on beaches nearby to see — and hear — the most powerful vehicle that NASA has ever launched climb into space.
The initial launch attempt was halted after engineers detected a fuel leak and a sensor showed that one of the rocket’s four main engines was too hot.
Both issues have since been resolved, the launch team said.
Shortly before 06:00 am (1000 GMT) Saturday, launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson had given the go-ahead to start filling the rocket’s tanks with cryogenic fuel and about three million liters of ultra-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen was expected to be pumped into the spacecraft.
And as the weather around the launch site had also appeared to be cooperating: the United States Space Force had also predicted a 60 percent chance of some favorable weather which had been placed at the scheduled liftoff time, which would be growing to 80 percent later in the launch window.