Issued on:
NASA was readying to launch its new mega Moon rocket early Wednesday from Florida, but technical issues threatened to play spoilsport a third time.
Engineers were forced to temporarily pause the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage Tuesday night because of a valve leak, though a team sent to the launch pad resolved the problem after an hour.
Later, the space agency reported that a radar monitoring the rocket’s flight path was experiencing problems due to a faulty ethernet switch.
A two-hour launch window will open at 1:04 am local time (0604 GMT), with the weather forecast 90 percent favorable.
The Artemis 1 mission, a test flight without astronauts, represents the first step in America‘s plan to build a lasting presence on the Moon and take lessons from there to prepare for a future voyage to Mars in the 2030s.
Named after the…
