When is the NASA press conference on the status of the Artemis I moon launch?
The space agency was forced to delay the long-awaited launch but NASA officials are hopeful that the issues can be resolved in the coming days.
NASA was forced to postpone the long-awaited launch of its Artemis 1 lunar mission on Monday due to mechanical issues with the craft and concern about an incoming thunderstorm. The Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion capsule were due to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center during a two-hour launch window from 8:33am local time.
But after identifying a fault in one of the craft’s four liquid-fuelled engines the space agency was forced to call a press conference announcing that the launch will be delayed. The space agency had already identified Friday, 2 September and Monday, 5 September as backup launch dates but NASA officials were unable to confirm whether the issues were likely to be resolved by those dates.
“There’s a non-zero chance we’ll have a launch on Friday,” NASA’s Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin said. “We really need time to look at all the information, all the data.”
NASA to hold teleconference to discuss Artemis I
There was understandable disappointment on the ground at Cape Canaveral at the news that Monday’s launch would not go ahead, but plans are already in place to reschedule the event as promptly as possible.
In a statement, NASA confirmed that a media teleconference will be held on Tuesday, 30 August at 6:00pm EDT to outline the future of the program.
The teleconference will feature Mike Sarafin (Artemis mission manager); Charlie Blackwell-Thompson (Artemis launch director); and John Honeycutt (Space Launch System (SLS) Program manager)
The press release confirming the event explains: “The Artemis I launch was scrubbed Monday after encountering an issue getting one of the four RS-25 engines on the bottom of the rocket’s core stage to the proper temperature range for liftoff.”
To stream the teleconference and receive the latest information on the Artemis I launch, head over to the NASA website.
The team responsible for the launch will hope that they are able to leave the rocket in situ while the problem is resolved, but the clock is ticking. If a launch is not deemed possible in the next week, engineers will likely have to move the rocket from the launch pad, potentially pushing back the date of launch by weeks.
However speaking on Monday, Sarafin was hopeful that the problem could be fixed fairly promptly, allowing the agency to proceed in the coming days.
He said that the prospect of having to move the rocket from the Launchpad was “getting ahead of our data reviews,” adding “if we can resolve this operationally at the pad then there won’t be any need for that.”