NASA reported that, owing to a technical problem, it had to cancel its massive SLS missile, originally scheduled for Monday, 29 August, at 15:33 Moscow time.
The problem was caused by an anomaly found in the cooling contours of one of the main engines, which would result in overheated and meltdown of the engine after take-off, which would jeopardize a 42-day mission in space and around the Moon, under which the American Space Agency naturally chose to move the first flight of its powerful launch vehicle, worth more than $35 billion, and hence the Artemis-1 mission, to this Friday, 2 September. The launch window will open at 7:48 p.m. Moscow time and close in two hours.
Artemis-1 is the first part of the same-named ambitious mission to send Earthlings back to the surface of the Moon 50 years after the completion of the Apollo programme. These visits, scheduled for 2025, will only be the first steps on the road that will lead man to Mars in the next decade.