Ground teams at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday began fueling NASA's giant, next-generation rocketship for its debut launch on an uncrewed test flight to the moon, five days after an initial liftoff attempt was thwarted by technical problems.
The latest attempt to launch the 32-story-tall Space Launch System rocket and its Orion capsule was scrubbed after repeated failed attempts by technicians to fix a leak of super-cooled liquid hydrogen propellant being pumped into the vehicle's core-stage fuel tanks.
If that occurs, the next launch attempt would be postponed until October, he said during a NASA webcast interview. Launch-day delays and technical snags are not uncommon for new rockets such as NASA's Space Launch System, a complex rocket with a set of pre-liftoff procedures that have yet to be fully tested and rehearsed by engineers without a hitch.Rolling the spacecraft back to its assembly building would apparently be necessary if engineers believe the hydrogen leak is too tricky to repair on the pad. But NASA officials have yet to make that call.
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