Artemis I launch postponed following engine problem

NEW YORK: An engine problem forced NASA on Monday to postpone for at least four days the launch of its colossal next-generation rocketship on a long-awaited debut test flight around the moon and back 50 years after Apollo's last lunar mission.

The countdown was halted about 40 minutes before launch time as the 32-story-tall, two-stage Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion crew capsule awaited liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The U.S. space agency cited a problem on one of the rocket's main engines, after launch teams had begun filling its core fuel tanks with super-cooled liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellants. Mission engineers struggled to properly condition that engine to the right temperature for launch, the agency said.

NASA did not give a new launch date but said its first available backup launch opportunity was set for Friday, Sept. 2.

Whether the agency sticks with that date depends on how quickly engineers can resolve the engine issue. The subsequent launch opportunity is Monday, Sept. 5.

The maiden journey of the SLS-Orion marks the kickoff of NASA's highly vaunted moon-to-Mars Artemis program, the successor to the Apollo lunar missions of the 1960s and '70s.

The voyage is intended to put the 5.75-million-pound vehicle through its paces in a rigorous demonstration flight, pushing its design limits, before NASA deems it reliable enough to carry astronauts in a subsequent flight targeted for 2024.