NASA is fueling its new moon rocket for liftoff on its first test flight, after a weather delay.
The NASA moon rocket stands ready less than 24 hours before it is scheduled to launch on Pad 39B for the Artemis 1 mission to orbit the moon at the Kennedy Space Center, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. – NASA began fueling its new moon rocket early Monday for liftoff on a test flight to put a crew capsule into lunar orbit for the first time in 50 years.
No one was inside the Orion capsule atop the 322-foot rocket at Kennedy Space Center. Instead, three test dummies were strapped in for the lunar-orbiting mission, expected to last six weeks. Rain pelted the launch site as the launch team finally began loading more than 1 million gallons of super-cold fuel into the rocket. Forecasters remained optimistic the sky would clear by launch time later in the morning; the rocket is banned from flying through rain.Besides the weather, launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and her team were dealing with a communication issue involving the Orion capsule.
The launch team was also wary of any lingering fuel leaks. A pair of countdown tests earlier this year uncovered not only leaks but other technical trouble. NASA officials said they could not be sure about the repairs until the final phase of the countdown.
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