NASA Delays Moon Mission to Fix Rocket, Rules Out March Launch

NASA’s Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft are rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 17.Photographer: Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP/Getty Images

NASA is preparing to remove its massive moon rocket from its launchpad to fix a technical issue, delaying the agency’s much-anticipated mission to send a crew of four around the moon.

On Saturday, NASA announced that it planned to roll back the rocket, the Boeing-built Space Launch System, to its hangar at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to fix a problem found in the upper portion of the vehicle. NASA engineers found an interruption in the flow of helium — which is needed for launch — in the rocket.