NASA is getting ready to strive once more Saturday to launch its Artemis 1 check flight on a long-awaited mission to ship an unpiloted Orion crew capsule on a 37-day journey round the moon and again.
With a forecast calling for a 60% likelihood of favorable climate, engineers started fueling the Space Launch System rocket at round 6 a.m. EDT Saturday, setting the stage for blastoff at 2:17 p.m., the opening of a two-hour window.
Launch was initially scheduled for Monday morning, however NASA bumped into issues throughout fueling, forcing the company to scrub simply as the launch window was opening.Â
NASA
The SLS rocket — the strongest booster NASA and its contractors have ever constructed — has 489 launch commit standards which have to be met to allow a liftoff.
“We’ve got a whole host of things that could cause us to not get off on any given day,” mission supervisor Mike Sarafin advised reporters at a Thursday night news convention. “There’s no guarantee we’re going to get off (Saturday). But we’re going to show up, and we’re going to try, and we’re going to give it our best.”
Follow updates beneath on Saturday as the countdown to launch continues.