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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Science
Richard Luscombe in Cape Canaveral, Florida

HISTORICAL FACTS: Artemis i nasa cancels moon mission launch over engine problem | History Defined

rocket among towers
The Artemis mission was halted 40 minutes before liftoff when problems arose as engineers increased fuel pressure to ‘condition’ the giant rocket’s engines. Photograph: Cristóbal Herrera/EPA

Nasa is delaying a decision on the timing of its next launch attempt for Artemis 1, the US space agency’s first human-rated moon rocket in 50 years, after calling off Monday’s scheduled liftoff late in the countdown because of an issue related to “engine bleed”.

Engineers at Nasa’s launch complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida, discovered the problem with one of the four core-stage engines of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket during overnight loading of 2.76m litres (730,000 gallons) of liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel needed to send the spacecraft off on its 1.3m-mile, 42-day journey to the far side of the moon and back.

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