NASA encountered a leak during the fueling process of its upcoming moon rocket on Monday, a crucial test that will determine the timeline for astronauts to embark on a lunar fly-around mission. The 98-meter rocket was being filled with super-cold hydrogen and oxygen at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Over 2.6 million liters of fuel needed to be loaded into the tanks, simulating the final stages of a real countdown.
However, the operation faced a setback a few hours in as an excess of hydrogen was detected near the rocket’s base, prompting a temporary halt in hydrogen loading with only half of the core stage filled. After an hour, loading resumed but was briefly paused again before continuing after 4 p.m. ET. The launch team deployed strategies developed during a previous Space Launch System (SLS) rocket launch that also struggled with hydrogen leaks before a successful lift-off.
The crew, including Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, observed the critical dress rehearsal from Houston, nearly 1,600 kilometers away. They have been in quarantine awaiting the outcome of the practice countdown that will determine their launch schedule for the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years.
Due to a weather delay caused by extreme cold, the launch was already two days behind schedule. NASA initiated the countdown clocks to stop just before ignition on Saturday night to address any remaining rocket issues. Successful completion of the fueling demonstration could pave the way for Commander Wiseman and his team to depart for the moon as early as Sunday. The mission must take off by February 11; otherwise, it will be postponed until March, as NASA has limited launch opportunities per month, and February’s window has been shortened by the cold snap.
The upcoming 10-day mission will see the astronauts travel past the moon, around its far side, and back to Earth to test the capsule’s crucial systems. The Artemis program aims to establish a sustainable lunar presence, with Wiseman’s crew laying the groundwork for future moon landings by subsequent astronauts, following NASA’s Apollo program missions to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s.
