CALGARY — A liquid hydrogen leak found during a “wet dress rehearsal” has caused NASA to delay the launch of the Artemis II mission.The space agency had been targeting a February 8 launch date for the mission that will send four astronauts on a ten-day journey around the Moon, but now says the earliest window for the mission will be in March.“To allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal, NASA now will target March as the earliest possible launch opportunity for the flight test,” NASA said in a statement on Tuesday.The agency had started loading the rocket with millions of litres of hydrogen on Monday as part of the two-day rehearsal test when, during tanking operations, engineers spent several hours troubleshooting a liquid hydrogen leak in an interface used to route the cryogenic propellant into the rocket’s core stage, putting the team behind in the countdown..“Attempts to resolve the issue involved stopping the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage, allowing the interface to warm up so the seals could reseat, and adjusting the flow of the propellant,” NASA said.As a result of the changed schedule, the agency has said the astronauts on the mission will be released from quarantine, which they first entered on January 21 in preparation for the February launch window.The astronauts will next go back into quarantine roughly two weeks before the next launch opportunity.“Safety remains our top priority, for our astronauts, our workforce, our systems, and the public,” Jared Isaacman, NASA administrator, said in an X post.“We will only launch when we believe we are as ready to undertake this historic mission.”.Artemis II is the second mission in the multibillion-dollar Artemis Moon program, which follows the first unmanned flight in 2022.While this second mission, which is crewed by three American astronauts and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will not include a Moon landing, it represents a milestone in space exploration, as it aims to test the viability of establishing a long-term lunar presence, including the eventual construction of a new space station orbiting the Moon.It is a precursor test for the Artemis III mission, which would see NASA’s first astronaut Moon landing since 1972.“This is just the beginning. It marks the start of an Artemis program that will evolve to support repeated and affordable missions to the Moon, in line with President Trump’s national space policy,” Isaacman said.“Getting this mission right means returning to the Moon to stay and looking ahead to Artemis 100 and beyond.”
