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Dec 17, 2023

Artemis I has launched

UPDATE: Artemis I has launched! Tune in today at 4 p.m. for WAAY 31's "The Next

UPDATE: Artemis I has launched! Tune in today at 4 p.m. for WAAY 31's "The Next Giant Leap," a special program dedicated to Artemis I, the Rocket City's work to support the Artemis missions and what's to come.

From earlier:

A small leak affecting a hydrogen valve and a lost radar signal posed issues for the launch of Artemis I early Wednesday morning, but NASA is now reporting this historic moment could begin as soon as 12:45 a.m.

Artemis I's launch window opened at 12:04 a.m. Wednesday and was only set to last until about 2:04 a.m. It's the fifth planned launch for the SLS rocket, which is set to take flight without a crew and bring NASA one step closer to returning mankind to the moon.

As they prepared for launch, however, officials were forced to pause the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage of the SLS rocket due to a small leak within the base of the mobile launcher.

A team of specially trained technicians were able to fix the leak, but a new problem arose: a lost radar signal that, if not fixed, would mean no launch at all.

Fortunately, crews were able to diagnose the cause as bad ethernet equipment that has since been replaced.

Now we wait for that iconic countdown to begin.

WAAY 31 will update this story as new information is made available.

Launch guesstimate: No earlier than 12:45 am CST, according to @NASA spokesperson. Still work to do to get #ArtemisI configured for launch tonight. Again, 2-hour window closes at 2:04 am CST. No big issues, just catching up from delays troubleshooting. @WAAYTV

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