Engine issues have forced NASA to scrub the launch of its new moon rocket Artemis 1 on a no-crew test flight.

The 98-metre Space Launch System rocket was set to lift off on Monday with three test dummies aboard on its first flight – a mission to propel a capsule into orbit around the moon.

But what NASA described as “an engine bleed that couldn’t be remedied” stopped the launch.

The rocket’s engine “didn’t get the high accuracy temperature that they were looking for”, launch control communicator, Derrol Nail, said. 

He said data on the issue was still being analysed by engineers and that it would remain fuelled on the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center.

NASA Administrator and US senator Bill Nelson said the delay is simply “part of the space business”.

He said the craft was always pushed harder on a test flight than when it had crew onboard. 

“We don’t launch until it’s right … I think it’s just illustrative that this is a very complicated machine, a very complicated system and all those things have to work and you don’t want to light the candle until it’s ready to go.”

Senator Nelson has seen flights scrubbed before – he was on the 24th flight of the Space Shuttle program, aboard Columbia, in 1986. 

“We scrubbed four times … and the fifth try was a flawless mission. We know had we launched on any one of those scrubs it wouldn’t have been a good day,” he said.

The next launch attempt will not come before Friday, September 2 at the earliest.

The rocket is unable to be launched sooner because of an eclipse, which would affect power production onboard the spacecraft. 

Speaking earlier this month, Michael Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, said August 30, 31 and September 1 were not “viable” launch opportunities, because “during the outbound leg of the mission, we have an eclipse and that eclipse exceeds 90 minutes which we screen out in terms of our launch attempts”.

He said viable dates for a re-launch run from September 2 to 6.

Captained by a crash-test dummy called Commander Moonikin Campos, the uncrewed flight is the first test run for the Artemis program, NASA’s first 21st-century moon-exploration program. 

NASA hopes to send four astronauts around the moon in 2024 and land humans there as early as 2025.

Prior to Monday’s attempt, the launch had been described as the start of “the most significant series of human exploration missions in over a generation” by Bhavya Lal, NASA associate administrator for technology, policy, and strategy.

ABC/AP