
Before the first launch attempt of the Artemis I mission last Monday, Wayne Hale, a former program manager of NASA’s space shuttle program, shared a note of caution on Twitter that the day could end up disappointing:
Bill Harwood, a longtime space reporter at CBS News, responded, “I think you’re being optimistic!”
In the past week, their words have been prophetic. On Saturday, when NASA tried for a second time to launch the Artemis I mission’s Space Launch System rocket, a leak in a hydrogen fuel line stymied engineers. They tried several times to fix it before the launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, decided at 11:17 a.m. that it was time to scrub the day’s flight.