FOG BLOG NASA LOG: ARTEMIS 1LAUNCH SCRUBBED AGAIN, LEAK FEARS, MAY TRY RELAUNCH IN OCTOBER!

NASA calls off second launch attempt for Artemis I (THE WORLD'S TALLEST ROCKET) mission to the moon Crews unable to fix liquid hydrogen leak NASA has called off its second launch attempt of the Artemis 1 moon mission after crews were unable to fix a liquid hydrogen leak.

The SLS core stage — the big orange rocket — contains both liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH2). They both need to have a staggered load. As of 10:13 a.m. ET, LOX was fully loaded. LH2 loading was put on hold for 30 minutes to see if warming it up would seal the leak.

At 10:15 a.m., the teams resumed loading the LH2 but the problem persisted. The launch was scrubbed at 11:17 a.m.

On Monday, the space agency was unable to launch its rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) with its Orion spacecraft for Artemis I — an uncrewed mission around the moon.

The space agency came up against several issues on Monday. First, it was a delay in loading the propellants into the SLS due to nearby lightning, which was a roughly 40-minute hold. Then, once they were able to start, there was an issue with the rate at which the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen were loading, which meant another brief hold. NASA then encountered another issue with a helium leak. They had run into this previously on their wet dress rehearsals, which involve a sort of mock launch, going through all the steps of a real attempt without actually lifting off.

What ultimately did in Monday's launch attempt was an issue with one of the rocket's RS-25 engines. Engine three showed that it had not cooled properly, and — due to all the other holds — they ran out of time and had to scrub the launch.