NASA Scrubs Artemis Moon Mission Launch

Today’s scheduled launch of Artemis 1 was canceled after ground teams at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida detected an issue with one of the four Launch System main engines.

The mission was put on hold at 7:10 a.m. ET. Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson had been consulting with the team in anticipation of a troubleshooting plan and how to proceed, ultimately the decision was made to scrub today’s launch.

“The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft remain in a safe and stable configuration,” NASA said in a press release.

Sept. 2 and Sept. 5 had already been designated as alternative launch dates in the event the planned launch were to be scrubbed.

Prior to the launch attempt, Administrator Bill Nelson had reminded journalists that the mission was a “stress test” that could not be done with humans aboard. Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin said the launch “could scrub for any number of reasons,” ranging from technical, weather, or public safety.