Five days after a first attempt to launch NASA’s massive, next-generation moon rocket was unsuccessful due to technical issues, ground crews at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida started their final full day of launch preparations on Friday.
According to NASA officials, mission managers were still on track for a Saturday afternoon launch of the 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion spacecraft to launch NASA’s moon-to-Mars Artemis program, which will replace the Apollo lunar missions from fifty years ago.
Jeremy Parsons, a deputy program manager at the space center, told reporters that tests carried out Thursday night revealed technicians appeared to have rectified a faulty fuel line that contributed to NASA’s decision to halt Monday’s initial launch operation of Artemis.
Mike Sarafin informed reporters on Thursday that two additional significant problems with the rocket, a malfunctioning engine temperature sensor and minor cracks in insulating foam, have essentially been fixed.
In addition to a backup launch window on Monday, the two-hour Saturday launch window, which opens at 2:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT), is predicted to have a 70% chance of favorable conditions, according to Melody Lovin, a launch weather officer for the U.S. Space Force in Cape Canaveral.
According to her, the likelihood of canceling a launch due to bad weather or any other reason was around one in three on any given day.
The SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft, which were made for NASA by Boeing Co (BA.N) and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), respectively, respectively, make their debut flights with Artemis I.
