NASA announced at a press conference that took place overnight from Saturday to Sunday that the upcoming launch of the SLS rocket will not take place in the next few days, but in a few weeks. The hydrogen leak was extensive, and the SLS megarocket will be taken to the hangar for repairs and testing. “The cost of two cancellations is less than the cost of one failure,” says NASA.

On Saturday, NASA announced that it was suspending the launch of the SLS rocket for the second time as part of the Artemis 1 mission. A few hours later, the agency provided further clarification, noting that there will definitely NOT be another launch on September 5 or 6.

• NASA cancels the launch of the SLS rocket for the second time, also for technical reasons

At best, a new launch can be attempted on September 26 or 27, but since the rocket will almost certainly have to be returned to the hangar of the transport and assembly shop, the next launch will take place no earlier than October 17-31.

As NASA administrator Bill Nelson also reported, the fact that the launch of the astronaut crew to the International Space Station with the SpaceX rocket will take place on October 5 will also play a role in choosing the date.

“It’s a test mission, and testing involves risk,” Nelson says of the Artemis 1 mission.

The hydrogen leak discovered during the refueling on Saturday was very serious and the engineers struggled with it for several hours but could not solve it.

NASA officials said several key decisions will be made in the coming days. How long could the rocket stay in the hangar? Will it launch from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B in late September or after mid-October?

There is another very important aspect. The rocket should return to the hangar thanks to the battery from a very important system.

It is about the battery of the FTS pyrotechnic system, which needs to be charged every 25 days. FTS (Flight Termination System) is a system that allows a missile to be deliberately detonated if it deviates too much from its trajectory immediately after launch to avoid it flying towards populated areas or beyond the flight path.

NASA has repeatedly stated that they will not launch until they are sure that everything is working well, because this rocket will also carry people in the Orion capsule in the future, so everything must work perfectly.