NASA Aborts Moon Rocket Test Launch Just Seconds Before Liftoff

 

The $250 million lander was intended to be launched into Earth’s orbit aboard an unmanned Atlas V rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. From there, it would have used its own thrusters to propel itself toward our planet’s natural satellite and conduct operations on the lunar surface for about a month, NASA said in a news release last year.

 

What's going on?

NASA officials have delayed a scheduled test launch of a Saturn V moon rocket for at least 24 hours after sensors detected abnormalities in one of two engines. Officials with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center said they were investigating Monday's incident as technicians prepared to fire up all five rocket engines for a ground test at Huntsville's Redstone Arsenal. The entire space shuttle fleet was grounded after another accident killed seven astronauts in 1986, and flight tests resumed only last year.

 

How are they doing it?

For decades, NASA has been developing its Space Launch System (SLS), and on Saturday, they tested a rocket booster that was scheduled to launch an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a trip around our moon. However, less than 29 seconds before lift-off, NASA called off their test after engineers spotted leaking.

 

A history of failures

After more than 20 years of development and billions of dollars spent, NASA was about to fire off its most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), on a test launch that would send an unmanned capsule into deep space. And then, with just 29 seconds left on the clock and everything looking good, officials decided to call it quits. It’s not unheard of for a rocket test to be canceled at the last minute.

 

When it finally worked

Spaceflight history was made on Wednesday evening when a commercial SpaceX rocket became the first booster to ever land vertically on an ocean platform. The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:41 p.m. EDT carrying SpaceX’s robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward a planned rendezvous with the International Space Station—about 260 miles above Earth—two days later.

 

People are relieved

NASA officials say that their primary concern was safety, not causing a panic. Still, in modern times it’s quite rare for NASA to abort a launch with so little time left on the clock. The last time anything like it happened was in 2009 when they called off a launch because of technical issues less than three seconds before liftoff.

 

What happens next?

What were they doing in those 29 seconds? And what would’ve happened if they’d continued with the launch as planned? As it turns out, some good reasons exist for aborting a rocket test launch. A rocket has three main stages: The first stage is used to lift off from Earth and get it into space; once that’s done, a second stage ignites to propel it further into space; finally, a third stage fires up and pushes it even further. The test was aborted at T-minus 0:29 seconds because of an issue with one of the boosters in that second stage.

 

Our thoughts and prayers

In a statement, NASA noted that its thoughts and prayers are with those affected by today’s incident. What led to the aborted test launch is currently unknown, but we will keep you posted as details emerge. According to officials, today’s rocket test was scheduled for liftoff at 11:02 AM EST from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

 It was meant to simulate a typical launch of an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41). NASA officials have launched a full investigation into what caused the incident; however, it could take weeks or months before they release their findings.