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<\/p>\nNASA has delayed the launch of its mission to send humans around the Moon for the first time since the Apollo missions.<\/p>\n
NASA had hoped to launch the mission as early as next week.<\/p>\n
But a full two-day dress rehearsal of the launch was terminated in the last 5 minutes yesterday due to the detection of a hydrogen leak in the rocket.<\/p>\n
The test also revealed issues with communication systems with the crew capsule.<\/p>\n
The earliest the mission can now launch is early March.<\/p>\n
“These tests are designed to surface issues before flight and set up launch day with the highest probability of success,” Jared Isaacman, the NASA administrator, said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
“We expect to conduct an additional ‘wet dress rehearsal’ and then target the March window.”<\/p>\n
What is Artemis II?<\/p>\n
Artemis II is the second mission in NASA’s Artemis program, but is the first with humans aboard.<\/p>\n
The four astronauts on the Artemis II mission \u2014 commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen \u2014 will be the first humans to travel to the Moon in more than 50 years.<\/p>\n
The mission will launch on a rocket called the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket NASA has ever developed.<\/p>\n
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Orion captured the Earth and Moon on the Artemis I mission. (Supplied: NASA)<\/p>\n
The spacecraft \u2014 called Orion \u2014 has been built specifically for the Artemis mission and will hold the astronauts in a dome-shaped capsule.<\/p>\n
The 10-day mission is designed to test systems on the capsule and will travel beyond the far side of the Moon, potentially taking humans further in space than ever before.<\/p>\n
The rocket and the capsule were tested during the Artemis 1 mission, which was “crewed” with test dummies<\/a>. That mission was also delayed several times due to technical issues.<\/p>\n What is the delay?<\/p>\n Hydrogen leaks were detected during a two-day rehearsal where NASA’s engineers fill up the rocket with hydrogen and oxygen and simulate all of the aspects of the launch pre-take-off.<\/p>\n “Everyone’s aware of some of the challenges with the hydrogen tanking from Artemis I, and we had made some changes,” Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said in a news conference after the rehearsal.<\/p>\n “The fact we got to full tanking yesterday on the first try was a tremendous success, and we gathered an enormous amount of data on the processes and how we want to go forward with that in the future.”<\/p>\n A similar issue occurred during the first Artemis mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n The launch was scrubbed twice<\/a> \u2014 once due to a faulty engine temperature reading and once due to a hydrogen leak found during fuelling<\/a>.<\/p>\n The inside story of the Challenger disaster<\/a><\/p>\n Forty years ago, the Challenger space shuttle disintegrated just after lift-off. A small team of engineers tried to prevent the tragedy.<\/p>\n According to Robert Howie, a space systems engineer at Curtin University, hydrogen leaks are a common problem.<\/p>\n “Hydrogen is such a small molecule, so it does have the tendency to leak,” he said.<\/p>\n “That caused quite a few delays with Artemis I. They’ve made some changes to the fuelling system for Artemis II, so hopefully it’ll be a little more reliable.”<\/p>\n Artemis I was launched three months after the first attempt.<\/p>\n Adam Gilmour, the CEO of Australian rocket company Gilmour Space Technologies, said delays were a regular part of undertaking launches.<\/p>\n “[NASA] will do a massive amount of tests as they run up to the launch. If anything goes wrong, they hold the launch,” Mr Gilmour said.<\/p>\n “There’s a whole lot of things that have to work, and this will test a lot of those systems, which will give them confidence for future missions.”<\/p>\n When will it launch?<\/p>\n At this stage, NASA has said they are aiming for March. But like most spacecraft launches, we won’t know until very close to the day if it will go ahead.<\/p>\n Before the hydrogen leaks were detected, the rehearsal had already been delayed a few days due to cold weather.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, NASA determined that there were three periods in February, March and April that would be best for the launch.<\/p>\n Launch periodLaunch datesJan 31 \u2014 Feb 14February 6, 7, 8, 10, 11Feb 28 \u2014 March 13March 6, 7, 8, 9, 11March 27 \u2014 April 30April 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 30<\/p>\n The launch dates are timed to match when the Earth, Moon and Sun are aligned so the astronauts can get into the right location and time for what is called a trans-lunar injection.<\/p>\n This is where, from Earth’s orbit, the spacecraft undertakes a perfectly timed acceleration to catch the Moon while undertaking a wide orbit of Earth.<\/p>\n The spacecraft loops around the Moon using its gravity, so no additional propulsion is needed to return to Earth, in a manoeuvre that looks like a big figure eight.<\/p>\n The astronauts will accelerate into a large orbit of Earth, and catch the Moon as it’s going past. (Wikimedia: Aresv<\/a>\/CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a> Edited by ABC Science)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/32d3241bf712d04830aa762d7d4ab68b.png\")
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