Fuel leak could delay first launch of NASA's Artemis moon rocket until October

The countdown was scrubbed after Kennedy Space Center technicians made several failed attempts to fix a "large" leak of supercooled liquid hydrogen propellant being pumped into the rocket's core-stage fuel tanks, agency officials said

The NASA moon rocket stands on Pad 39B before the Artemis 1 mission to orbit the moon at the Kennedy Space Center, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. Picutre: AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

For the second time in a week, NASA on Saturday aborted an attempt to launch its giant, next-generation rocketship, citing a stubborn fuel leak that the space agency said could delay the debut mission of its moon-to-Mars Artemis program by at least several weeks.

Preflight operations were called off for the day about three hours before the 2:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT) liftoff time targeted of the 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion capsule from Cape Canaveral, Florida.