Artemis launch – live: Nasa scrubs second attempt after Moon rocket leak

With just over an hour to go until Nasa’s news conference following the second scrubbed launch attempt of the Artemis 1 mission, here’s everything Bill Nelson had to say about the setback shortly after it was called off.

The post-scrub news conference, which should be kicking off in just under two hours, will include Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson, Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development and Artemis Mission Manager Mike Sarafin.

Nasa says there will also be “additional participants to be determined”.

Nasa administrator Bill Nelson has praised the Artemis-1 launch team in his comments following today’s launch scrub.

“I’m very proud of the launch team. They do it right, they do it by the book, they do it professionally, and that’s why we’ve had this extraordinary succes over the years,” he says.

“Sometimes we make mistakes but we try to minimize those because these are human lives on the top of that rocket and I can tell you, when you strap into that rocket, you are very gratefull that you’ve got a launch team like this, that knows what they’re doing, and they’re not going to let you go until it’s time.”

When questioned when the next launch window for the Artemis 1 mission might open, Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson refused to commit to a date, though warned it could be pushed back by more than a month.

“The mission management team is meeting this afternoon, they’re going to look at it, they’re going to see is there still a possibility now, or are they going to have to roll back into the vehicle assembly building,” he says.

“If they decide that’s the case, then it’ll be an October launch… Although the window opens in early [October], I suspect it will be more like the middle [of October].”

This is because there’s currently another launch planned for early October of a four-person crew to the International Space Station.

Nasa Administrator Bill Nelso is speaking on Nasa TV.

“We go when it’s ready. We don’t don’t go until then, and especially now on a test flight because we’re going to stress this and test it, and test that heat shield, and make sure it’s right before we put four humans up on the top of it,” he says.

“So this is part of the space business. I’ve told you before, it’s something I’m accustomed to on my flight… which was way, way, way back – we scrubbed four times. We were delayed for the better part of a month, but the sixth try was an almost flawless six day mission. So this is part of our space program: be ready for the scrubs.”

We’ll hopefully be hearing from Nasa administrator Bill Nelson shortly. The former astronaut did the same following the scrubbed Artemis-1 launch attempt on Monday, offering wise words on the importance of not launching “until it’s right”.

Here’s the full statement from Nasa following the launch attempt scrub of the Artemis 1 mission:

The post scrub news conference is expected to take place at 4pm ET (9pm BST).

Hopefully we’ll learn more about when the next launch attempt might be, though maybe it will just be more info on what actually went wrong today. Either way we’ll be sticking around to find out and will bring you all the latest updates right here.

Nasa has said it will hold a press conference later today to give more details about today’s scrub, and give updates about when a new launch date can be expected.

If it’s anything like the press conference following Monday’s launch scrub, the US space agency is unlikely to set an actual date for the new launch until all the issues have been identified and resolved.

Multiple troubleshooting efforts have so far been unsuccessful in solving the problem with the liquid hydrogen leak today.

Artemis launch control has just put out the following message: