NASA forced to delay launch of lunar rocket due to fuel issues:

NASA on Monday delayed plans to launch a new rocket and crew capsule after a series of fuel leaks and difficulty getting a booster engine down to the right temperature for takeoff. This manned capsule is meant to eventually send astronauts back to the moon.

If the difficulties are resolved, NASA could attempt another launch Friday.

"We don't launch until there's no problem," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said of the delay. "You can't launch. There are guidelines to follow, and I think that means this is a very complex machine, a very complex machine. system, all of those things have to work,"

Nelson said. "You don't want to fire it up before it's ready." "The difficulty will work

out, and then we'll take off."

The temperature of the engine drops to the right level, a process that requires liquid hydrogen maintained at minus 217 degrees Celsius through engine operation. Engineers tried several workarounds without success.

Earlier Monday, NASA dealt with delays caused by thunderstorms passing near the launch site in southeastern Florida and an external leak discovered during refueling operations.

The test involved the most powerful Space Launch System rocket in NASA's history, which will propel the Orion capsule without any astronauts on board on this flight. Orion plans to orbit the moon and return to Earth, a journey that will take about six weeks.

If successful, NASA plans to send astronauts into lunar orbit in 2024, and possibly to the lunar surface as early as 2025.The launch is part of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to have humans walk on the moon for the first time since 1972, including the first woman and a person of color to walk on the moon. (Parts of this article are based on reports from the Associated Press, AFP and Reuters)

NASA also plans to build a lunar base and says it will use what it has learned to guide efforts to send the first astronauts to Mars.