NASA’s new moon rocket and why its launch was scrubbed today

The moon sets in front of the NASA Artemis rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard on pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA called off the launch of its new moon rocket after a last-minute cascade of problems culminating in unexplained engine trouble. (AP)

Vice President Kamala Harris and Apollo 10 astronaut Tom Stafford were among the VIPs who arrived at Cape Canaveral on Monday. (AP)

A child waves a souvenir flag while waiting on the Max Brewer Bridge to view the launch on Pad 39B for the Artemis I mission to orbit the moon at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday. (AP)

The mission, when it happens, will be the first flight in NASA's Artemis project, a quest to put astronauts back on the moon for the first time since the Apollo program ended 50 years ago. (Reuters)

The next launch attempt will not take place until Friday at the earliest and could be off until mid-September or later. (Reuters)

A vendor sells souvenir flags to spectators on the Max Brewer Bridge waiting to view the launch of the Artemis I mission, at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday. Even though no one was on board, thousands of people jammed the coast to see the rocket soar. (AP)

The 322-foot (98-meter) spaceship is the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA, out-muscling even the Saturn V that took the Apollo astronauts to the moon. (Reuters)

The problems seen Monday were reminiscent of NASA's space shuttle era, when hydrogen fuel leaks disrupted countdowns and delayed a string of launches back in 1990. (Photo: AP)

Assuming the shakedown flight goes well, astronauts will climb aboard for the second Artemis mission and fly around the moon and back as soon as 2024. (AP)

As for when NASA might make another liftoff attempt, launch commentator Derrol Nail said engineers were still analyzing the engine problem and “we must wait to see what shakes out from their test data.” (Reuters)

The rocket was set to lift off on a flight to propel a crew capsule into orbit around the moon. The six-week mission was scheduled to end with the capsule returning to Earth in a splashdown in the Pacific in October. (Photo: AP)