​NASA confirmed that it will try again on Saturday to launch the SLS rocket that will send the Orion capsule around the moon as part of the Artemis 1 mission. The agency says Monday’s launch failed due to a faulty sensor that incorrectly indicated that Engine 3 had not cooled to the required temperature.

After a meeting on Thursday, NASA decided it could make another attempt on Saturday.

NASA will attempt to launch the SLS rocket on September 3 between 21:17 and 23:17 Romanian time (14:17 to 16:17 in Florida).

“We have no guarantee that we will be able to launch on Saturday, but we will try,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission director. If it doesn’t work out on Saturday, there is only one option – September 5. The rocket will then need to be taken to the hangar for inspection, and a new launch will be possible in a few weeks.

The launch will be possible only if weather conditions allow.

The rocket could not be launched on August 29 because Engine 3 was showing a higher temperature than usual, and engineers were trying to figure out why it was not cooling down enough. After analyzing the data, it turned out that the fault was actually a faulty sensor, and the problem was not serious enough to require the rocket to be transported to the hangar.

You can’t replace the sensor on the launch pad, so they’ll leave it there, but ignore the false data it’s sending.

The Artemis 1 mission will last 42 days, and the Orion capsule should reach a distance of 450,000 km from Earth.