The first mission of the US program to return to the Moon half a century after the Apollo era is already underway.

A new technical setback on Tuesday night raised fears of a new delay, but NASA engineers were able to fix a fuel leak detected while fueling the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that is heading to the Moon at Orion ship.

Thousands of people have waited for hours in the vicinity of the Kennedy Space Center to witness the launch of Artemis 1, a 26-day unmanned mission that will orbit our satellite for two weeks to test for the first time all the systems that must allow around 2025 to land on our satellite again.

The hydrogen leak detected on this occasion came from a valve on the launch platform, and was located in a different area from the one that occurred in the other takeoff attempts.

A total of 3.7 million liters of fuel (hydrogen and oxygen) are needed to launch the almost 100-meter rocket that stars in this mission on which NASA is going to spend around 4,100 million dollars.

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NASA will attempt to launch the Artemis 1 mission to the Moon tomorrow despite damage from Hurricane Nicole

  • Writing: TERESA GUERREROMadrid

NASA will attempt to launch the Artemis 1 mission to the Moon tomorrow despite damage from Hurricane Nicole

During the mission the Orion spacecraft will be located about 65,000 kilometers from the Orion and NASA has developed a tool called AROW that will allow any user to track the spacecraft and its distance from Earth.

The test flight will last three weeks after which the capsule will splash down in the Pacific.

Since the launch was set for August 29, the launch of Artemisa 1 has suffered several delays due to technical failures and the passage of two hurricanes in Florida.

The last one, Nicole, a few days ago, caused slight damage to the Orion spacecraft that could be repaired, as Carlos García-Calán, a NASA engineer, told this newspaper: "The damage has occurred in the place where it was join the three panels of the escape system that protect the

Orion capsule

during the first phase of launch.

To join these panels we use a material called RTV, which is similar to the silicone used in houses to fill joints", compares García-Galán. "After the hurricane, it was found that one of the layers had come off and the Our expectation is that it will not go any further, but an analysis had to be done to assess what would happen in the worst scenario, and if it could come off when the rocket reaches high speed," he explains.

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