CAPE CANAVER, Florida –
NASA launched its huge lunar rocket for the first time on Monday and continued with a critical countdown test despite a fuel leak.
This was NASA’s fourth crack during the most important dress rehearsal, the last important stage before the long-awaited debut of the moon rocket.
Previous attempts in April were thwarted by a fuel leak, as well as jammed valves and other technical problems.
Another leak – this time in an external fuel line – nearly limited Monday’s test at the Kennedy Space Center. But NASA’s managers still decided to take the countdown test.
Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said they continued to see “how the team performed, how the hardware performed and both performed very well.”
The engineers wanted to get to the 9-second mark – shortly after the engine was started – to validate all systems and procedures. But he broke off for 29 seconds. NASA spokesman Derol Neil said it was not immediately clear why the countdown had stopped.
Earlier, nearly 1 million gallons of super cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen were loaded into a 322-foot (98-meter) rocket known as the Space Launch System, or SLS.
The delay in the tests pushed back the actual launch – with an empty Orion capsule flying around the moon and back – by the end of August at the earliest. This test flight is crucial before the astronauts board.
Blackwell-Thompson said it was too early to say what NASA’s next step might be.
The second SLS flight, scheduled for 2024, will send a crew around the moon and back. The third mission – no earlier than 2025 – will have astronauts actually landing on the moon.
The last time astronauts went to the moon was in 1972 during NASA’s Apollo program. The new program is named Artemis, Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology.
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