Moon mission "Artemis": NASA again with problems with the test - new start date wobbles

Created: 09/22/2022, 13:04

By: Patrick Huljina

By 2025, NASA's "Artemis" mission should land humans on the moon again.

The launch of an unmanned rocket has had to be postponed several times.

Cape Canaveral - The US space agency NASA's "Artemis" moon mission is once again struggling with problems.

At the beginning of September, two eagerly awaited attempts to launch the unmanned rocket from the spaceport in Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida were canceled - among other things because of a leaking fuel hose.

During a tank test on Wednesday (September 21), NASA found another leak.

Moon mission "Artemis": NASA again with problems with the test

It was the same type of leak when refueling with liquid hydrogen that had prevented the "Artemis" mission from starting on September 3, the US space agency said.

This time, however, the engineers succeeded in continuing the test refueling in such a way that the leak did not increase and was within a tolerable range.

This allowed the test to continue as planned and to meet all four objectives for refueling and fixing previous errors, NASA said.

"We were able to achieve all of the goals we set ourselves today," said launch maneuver supervisor Charlie Blackwell-Thompson.

According to the space agency, the data obtained is now being evaluated and the tanks are being emptied again.

The NASA lunar rocket for the unmanned moon mission "Artemis" stands on Pad 39B in the Kennedy Space Center.

© John Raoux/dpa

New "Artemis" start date is shaky: tank problems, missing approvals and tropical storm "Fiona"

The new start date for the “Artemis” mission is September 27th.

However, it is still unclear whether this schedule can be met.

In addition to the tank problems and the lack of approvals for this date, the weather could also throw a spanner in the works for NASA.

Tropical storm Fiona is currently raging in the Caribbean, not far from the spaceport.

Blackwell-Thompson declined to comment on the launch date, but said the tank test "encouraged her tremendously."

October 2nd was mentioned as a possible replacement date for another launch attempt.

Another window envisages a launch between October 17th and 31st.

"Artemis" mission is supposed to bring people back to the moon - two Germans in a close circle

With the "Artemis" mission, NASA wants to prepare for renewed human journeys to the moon 50 years after the last moon landing.

The task of the current mission "Artemis 1" is to test the most powerful carrier rocket to date and the Orion capsule sitting at the top under real conditions.

The follow-up mission "Artemis 2" is to bring astronauts into a lunar orbit.

With “Artemis 3”, another moon landing should not be successful before 2025 at the earliest.

The two German astronauts Alexander Gerst, who is practicing for the space mission in a crater near Nördlingen, and Matthias Maurer, together with five other European colleagues, belong to the team of the European Space Agency ESA, which is involved in the "Artemis" program on exploration of the moon to prepare.

This was announced by the ESA on Wednesday.

They have all completed at least one mission on the International Space Station ISS and spent 4.5 years in space together.