\n<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s wet dress rehearsal\u2014a crucial test of the agency\u2019s Artemis II mission to the moon\u2014has hit a snag.<\/p>\n
Engineers had been fueling the mission\u2019s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket up with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant, and planned to initiate a countdown sequence to simulate the launch. But hours into the process, NASA engineers stopped the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage of the SLS, which houses the rocket\u2019s main engines, to investigate and troubleshoot a potential leak.<\/p>\n
Liquid oxygen (the other main component of the rocket\u2019s fuel) is still flowing into the core stage. As part of the troubleshooting effort, NASA has paused liquid hydrogen loading into the upper stage, which is designed to loft the Orion crew capsule toward its orbital journey around the moon.<\/p>\n
If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n
Artemis II will see four astronauts fly a 10-day loop around the moon and back to Earth, going farther into space than any human has gone before. If the wet dress rehearsal is a success, then the mission will launch no earlier than February 8.<\/p>\n
This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/p>\n
If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA\u2019s wet dress rehearsal\u2014a crucial test of the agency\u2019s Artemis II mission to the moon\u2014has hit a snag. Engineers had been fueling the mission\u2019s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket up with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant, and planned to initiate a countdown sequence to simulate the launch. But hours into the process, NASA engineers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[7387,102,3164,1883,22514,18061],"class_list":{"0":"post-43517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-artemis","9":"tag-hits","10":"tag-launch","11":"tag-nasas","12":"tag-rehearsal","13":"tag-snag"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}