Science & Technology

NASA has explained the reasons for the delay in the launch of the new era Moon exploration programme - called Artemis 1.

“It’s not going to fly until it’s ready,” Bill Nelson, NASA administrator told a media briefing after the mission to the Moon was called off at the last minute on Monday. Then it was due to lift-off at 1815 NST.

NASA officials wouldn't reveal the exact date when it would be launched. 

The maiden launch of NASA’s rocket SLS and Orion spacecraft was called off at the last minute when engineers at NASA encountered different problems, one of which was more demanding to look at.

Mike Sarafin, Artemis Mission Manager said: “They have overcome a number of them [issues], but we ran into one that we need more time to look at.”

NASA’s 100 metres tall rocket, the biggest rocket NASA has ever tried to launch, encountered a problem with one of its four engines.

The engines of the rocket had to be chilled to a certain cryogenic temperature (very low) using the limited supply of the fuel itself. But they encountered a problem when one of the engines failed to cool to the temperature, the process which they call “engine bleed”.

Cooling the engines is an important procedure to “precondition” the engines and not shock the engines when super-chilled fuel rushes to the engines when the rocket starts.

They do it by bleeding (releasing a small amount of) the fuel to the engines to cool.

Prior to that, they were also worried about what appeared to be a crack but was later determined to be a frost build-up.

Addressing thousands of spectators and aeronautic enthusiasts who were left disappointed, Administrator Nelson, who was also an astronaut previously in the space shuttle programme, said that scrubs are “just a part of this program”.

Nelson, who flew the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1986 recalling his flight said: “We scrubbed four times on the pad.”

Mission Manager Sarafin said that they will try to launch on the next launch window on Friday, September 2.

“But we need time, we really need time to look at all the information, all the data and, you know, we're gonna play all nine innings here and we're not ready to give up yet," Sarafin added.

He said that the Friday launch will come to fruition if the issues can be fixed in the launch pad “in the next 48 hours, 72 hours”.

However, the delay will be much longer if that will not be the case.