Space flights | NASA canceled the launch of the giant rocket to the Moon, even though the launch window was still open

The countdown to the Artemis 1 hearing was suspended on Monday. There was then only 40 minutes until departure. The next departure attempt is scheduled for Friday, September 2.

Technical the problem was in one of the launcher engines, of which there are four in total. One of the launch vehicle’s engines, i.e. engine three, did not cool down enough to be able to start it.

The tanks of the first and second stages of the SLS launch vehicle were already almost full of the rocket’s fuel, i.e. liquid hydrogen and oxygen, at the time of the interruption.

of SLS the first flight is called Artemis 1. It is the opening of the new lunar project of the US space administration NASA.

A launch vehicle the start of refueling was delayed by almost an hour. The reason was a nearby storm and its lightning on the coast of Florida. The storm did not delay the departure in the end.

Nasa started refueling the 98-meter high SLS launch vehicle on Monday morning local time, around 9 a.m. Finnish time.

“The weather delayed the refueling by an hour, but we hope to make up for lost time,” said a NASA spokesperson Derrol Nail web page to Space.com hours before departure.

The weather forecast promised an 80 percent probability of good weather conditions for the departure, which took place at 15:33 Finnish time. Later, the weather got a little worse, but that didn’t stop the start.

Nasan according to the instructions, refueling of the launch vehicle cannot be started if the storm is less than eight kilometers from the launch pad. Refueling is also interrupted if the probability of lightning is more than 20 percent during the first hour of refueling.

Both rules were violated, said a NASA representative Derrol Nail of Space.com by.

The first stage of the launch vehicle is 61 meters high. About 2.76 million liters of fuel, which is cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, sank into the stage. They are the main power source of the four R-25 rockets.

The engines come from NASA’s shuttle program from the early 2000s. The space shuttle squadron was decommissioned in 2011.

Let’s go a two-hour “window” was arranged until 17:33 Finnish time. The next departure attempt is scheduled for September 2. The next backup date is September 5.