NASA called off the second attempt to launch an ambitious test flight of its new moon rocket last night, following liquid hydrogen leak. American space agency hoped to launch its Artemis 1 moon mission last night, but a hydrogen fuel leak detected about seven hours before lift-off which thwarted the attempt. NASA engineers repeatedly tried to rectify the fuel leak during the Artemis 1 countdown but all three attempts failed.
The launch of Artemis I Moon rocket is facing a potentially lengthy delay after a second postponement. Engineers now want to inspect the rocket, and any repairs may need to happen in the workshop rather than on the launch pad. It means NASA may not see a third launch attempt before mid-October at the earliest. The Space Launch System is the most powerful rocket ever developed by the US space agency, and is designed to send astronauts and their equipment back to the Moon after an absence of 50 years. Much of the enormous thrust comes from burning almost three million litres of super-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen in four big engines on the vehicle’s underside.