Washington: NASA engineers were evaluating data gathered during the Artemis I launch attempt, which was scrubbed owing to a technical glitch in one of the rocket engines.
The space agency said that a mission management team was set to convene on Tuesday to discuss the data and develop a plan forward.
On Monday, the teams “could not get the rocket’s engines to the proper temperature range required to start the engines at liftoff, and ran out of time in the two-hour launch window to continue”, said the space agency.
The Space Launch System’s four RS-25 engines must be thermally conditioned before super cold propellant begins flowing through them for liftoff.
“Managers suspect the issue, seen on engine 3, is unlikely to be the result of a problem with the engine itself,” said NASA.
NASA has not yet set a date for the next launch attempt but the earliest possible opportunity is Friday.
“The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft remain in a safe and stable configuration. Engineers are continuing to gather additional data,” said the space agency.
NASA’s Artemis I launch is part of a larger space programme to take astronauts back to the moon sometime after 2025. A first round trip test mission is to take place in about 42 days.
This was NASA’s first unmanned space mission to the Moon in the last 50 years since 1972.
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