The US space agency Nasa has again found a leak during a tank test for its unmanned moon mission “Artemis”. Nevertheless, it was possible to continue the experiment as planned and to meet all four goals for refueling and fixing previous errors, NASA said. NASA had previously explained that it was the same type of leak when refueling with liquid hydrogen that had prevented the mission from starting on September 3rd.
This time the engineers succeeded in continuing the test refueling in such a way that the leak did not increase and was within a tolerable range. The data obtained would now be evaluated and the tanks emptied again, it was said.
However, it was unclear whether the current schedule, which provides for a new launch attempt on September 27, can be met. The authorities are still missing further approvals for this date anyway. Another window provides for a start between October 17th and 31st. About three weeks ago, two attempts to launch the unmanned rocket failed – among other things because of a leaking fuel hose.
The rocket system was then initially brought back to the hangar at the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida. Problems had also arisen in earlier “Artemis” tests, which ultimately resulted in a significant delay in the project. With the program, named after the Greek goddess of the moon, US astronauts should actually land on the moon again by 2024.
