NASA said Tuesday it was delaying its mission to send four astronauts on a journey around the moon, after issues arose during a critical test of its enormous rocket.Mission managers were conducting an elaborate launch day walkthrough, known as a “wet dress rehearsal,” at Kennedy Space Center in Florida when engineers detected leaking hydrogen at the base of the Space Launch System rocket. NASA was forced to end the test a little after midnight ET, with around 5 minutes and 15 seconds remaining in the simulated launch countdown.Shortly after 2 a.m. ET on Tuesday, NASA announced it would forgo February’s launch window for the Artemis II mission around the moon, which extended from Friday through Feb. 11, to allow teams to review data and conduct another wet dress rehearsal. It said it will now aim for March “as the earliest possible launch opportunity.”AdvertisementAdvertisementThe space agency has said there are available launch opportunities from March 6 through March 9, and on March 11, with additional dates in April, if needed.NASA’s wet dress rehearsal was essentially an elaborate launch day walkthrough that allowed mission managers to assess the performance and readiness of the rocket. Officials are expected to discuss early results from the test in a briefing on Tuesday at 12 p.m. ET.“With more than three years between SLS launches, we fully anticipated encountering challenges,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman wrote in a post on X. “That is precisely why we conduct a wet dress rehearsal. These tests are designed to surface issues before flight and set up launch day with the highest probability of success.”The hourslong rehearsal involved filling the Space Launch System rocket with more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellant and simulating each step of the launch countdown as would occur on the actual day.The Orion spacecraft, integrated for the Artemis II mission at the Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 30. (Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images)(Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo)During the fueling process, which got underway at around 12:30 p.m. ET on Monday, mission managers twice paused proceedings to investigate leaking hydrogen fuel at t …
