Another technical problem slows the return to the Moon
NASA has to move the piece again. The huge rocket of the Artemis program, which was to carry astronauts to lunar orbit, will return to the hangar this week for further repairs. A new failure in the helium system has ruined launch plans for March.
Just when they thought they had everything under control.
On Thursday they finished a crucial fueling test, making sure they had sealed those dangerous hydrogen leaks that caused such a headache. They had even set a new date: March 6. And then… boom. The helium system failed.
“It is necessary to return to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy to determine the cause of the problem and resolve it,” NASA said in a statement.
Helium is vital. It is used to bleed the engines and pressurize the tanks in the rocket’s upper stage. Without it functioning perfectly, there is no mission.
What does this mean for Artemis II?
The slow trip back to the workshop – those 6.4 kilometers through the Kennedy Space Center – pushes any launch attempt until at least April. And that’s if everything goes well with the repairs.
The window is very narrow. NASA only has a few days each month to send this crew of four around the Moon and back. Three Americans and a Canadian are waiting in Houston, already the first designated to return there since the Apollo program.
The agency insists that this rapid return to the platform helps keep alive the possibility of a spring takeoff. But between the lines you can read the frustration: each solution seems to reveal a new problem.
More than half a century after the last man on the Moon, the road back is still full of technical obstacles.
