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A watch party for the launch of the Artemis I mission to the moon was cut short early Monday morning at the Jefferson County campus of Lockheed Martin Space after NASA delayed the flight due to unexplained mechanical issues.
Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the Orion capsule, which will be flown without astronauts as the first step in returning people to the moon. Colorado-based Lockheed Martin employees engineered and built many of the components.
Several of the company’s engineers and other employees were at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, to watch the enormous Space Launch System rocket take off. The rocket’s upper stage was developed and built by Centennial-based United Launch Alliance.
After the launch was scrubbed, Ron Nelthorpe, senior manager of program planning for Lockheed Martin on the mission, said backup plans are always in place in case issues arise.
“We have another launch window on Friday. I’m still excited. It’s going to happen,” Nelthorpe said. “I’m going to take the team out to lunch.”
As precious minutes ticked away Monday morning, NASA repeatedly stopped and started the fueling of the Space Launch System rocket because of a leak of highly explosive hydrogen, eventually succeeding in reducing the seepage to acceptable levels. The leak happened in the same place that saw seepage during a dress rehearsal in the spring.
The fueling already was running nearly an hour late because of thunderstorms off Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.
Then, NASA ran into new trouble when it was unable to properly chill one of the rocket’s four main engines, officials said. Engineers continued working to pinpoint the source of the problem after the launch postponement was announced.
“This is a very complicated machine, a very complicated system, and all those things have to work, and you don’t want to light the candle until it’s ready to go,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
Before the countdown was halted, Nelthorpe talked about Artemis I being an important milestone.
“It’s been 50 years since we’ve been out this far out into space, out to the moon, so it’s very, very significant.,” Nelthorpe said. “This is a stepping stone to build a permanent place on the moon and then from there to Mars. This is what this spacecraft is designed to do.”
The test flight is part of the preparation for landing the first woman and first person of color on the moon, planned for 2025. Orion won’t have a crew. The Associated Press reports it is carrying three test dummies. Sensors will measure vibration, acceleration and radiation that people will potentially face.
NASA said Orion will fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown.
Lockheed Martin said Orion’s technology was designed to address the extremes of deep space and includes heat and radiation shields and advanced environmental control and life-support systems.
Orion will travel 280,000 miles from Earth and thousands of miles beyond the moon. A service module provided by the European Space Agency will supply the spacecraft’s main propulsion system and power, NASA said.
NASA said its new Space Launch System, the rocket used to launch Orion, the most powerful rocket in the world.
Lockheed Martin has a contract with NASA to produce six Orion spacecraft. Artemis II will have a four-astronaut crew and could launch in 2024. The spacecraft will fly around the moon and perform several maneuvers, according to NASA.
The Artemis I mission comes 50 years after the last time people landed on the moon. The Apollo 17 crew made several field trips to explore the lunar geology. NASA wants to explore the moon’s south pole, where scientists have observed ice. The ice could provide water as well as oxygen and rocket fuel when the water’s atoms are broken down.
The Artemis mission was named for the goddess of the moon in Greek mythology. Artemis was Apollo’s twin sister.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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