What went wrong before the launch of Artemis I?
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(CNN) --
The uncrewed Artemis I mission will have another launch attempt to make its trip around the Moon on Saturday.
After the launch of Artemis was postponed on Monday morning, the team spent the rest of the day evaluating the data collected during the attempt.
Mission managers shared an update Tuesday night.
NASA explained why Artemis I could not take off
The Artemis I stack, which includes the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft, remains on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
One of the rocket's four RS-25 engines, identified as engine #3, was unable to reach the proper temperature range required for the engine to start during liftoff.
The engines must be thermally conditioned before supercooled propellant flows through them prior to takeoff.
To prevent the engines from experiencing temperature shocks, launch controllers increase the pressure of the core-stage liquid hydrogen tank to send some of the liquid hydrogen to the engines.
This is known as "purging".
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Liquid hydrogen is about 423 °F (252 °C below zero).
Mission managers suspected that the No. 3 engine problem was actually a problem with the purge system, rather than with the engine itself.
They postpone the launch of NASA's Artemis I mission: this was the attempt
Other issues, such as storm surges, a leak in a 20-centimeter line used to fill and drain liquid hydrogen from the rocket's core stage, and a hydrogen leak from a vent valve in the core stage's intertank, also they caused delays Monday morning that prevented liftoff during the two-hour launch window.
"We agreed on what was called option one, which was to operationally change the charging procedure and start cooling our engine earlier. We also agreed to do some work on the platform to fix the leak we saw on the connector mast in the service of the hydrogen tail," said Mike Sarafin, director of the Artemis mission, at NASA Headquarters.
There is still a pre-order opportunity for the Artemis I mission to launch on September 5.
The Artemis I mission is just the beginning of a program that will aim to return humans to the Moon and eventually land manned missions to Mars.
Why are you postponing the launch of Artemis I?
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