NASA fuels moon rocket for 1st time in countdown rehearsal

CAPE CANAVERAL FL. –

NASA filled its enormous moon rocket for the first-ever time Monday. The critical countdown test was carried out despite a fuel leak.

This was NASA’s fourth attempt at the important dress rehearsal, the final major milestone before the long-awaited launch of the moon rocket.

The fuel leak and stuck valves were the main obstacles to the previous attempts in April.

Another leak, this time from an external fuel line, almost halted Monday’s Kennedy Space Center test. NASA managers decided to perform the countdown test regardless.

Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson saidThey pushed forward to see “how team performed, how hardware performed, and both performed very well.”

Engineers wanted the time to go down to 9 seconds, just before engine firing, in order to validate all procedures and systems. It stopped at 29 seconds. NASA spokesman Derrol Nail saidIt wasn’t immediately clear why the countdown had stopped.

The Space Launch System (or SLS) was a 322-foot (98-meter-long) rocket that carried nearly 1 million gallons each of super-cold liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

Due to delays in testing, the launch of the Orion capsule carrying a full Orion capsule around the moon and back has been delayed until August. This test flight is vital before astronauts climb aboard.

Blackwell-Thompson saidIt was too soon to predict what NASA’s next step would be.

The second SLS flight was scheduled for 2024 and would send a crew to the moon. The third mission, which would be launched no later than 2025, would see astronauts landing on the moon.

In 1972, during NASA’s Apollo program, the last time astronauts walked on the moon was in 1972. Artemis, Apollo’s twin sister according to Greek mythology, is the new program.