Chinese space scientists keep eager watch as Nasa’s moon mission awaits new lift-off date
- Nasa’s most powerful rocket ever aims to send uncrewed capsule to moon and back in preparation for human landing by 2025
- Historic mission watched closely in China has been put off over technical issues until Friday at least
Lift-off was scheduled for 8.33am Eastern time (8.33pm in Beijing) on Monday, but Nasa put the countdown clock on hold with about 40 minutes to go before confirming that the launch had been cancelled over “an engine bleed”.
The next attempt will not take place until Friday at the earliest, according to the US space agency.
“It’s a wonderful thing for the entire space community,” senior Chinese space scientist Wu Ji said at a national assembly for the sector at the weekend.
The US$40 billion Artemis 1 mission will use a super heavy-lift launch vehicle called the Space Launch System (SLS) to send an uncrewed capsule to the moon and back, in a rehearsal for landing American astronauts on the lunar surface by 2025.
The last crewed space flight to the moon was Nasa’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
“I’m glad that the US plans to return to the moon. It will prompt other nations to develop their space exploration programmes and foster healthy competition,” said an astronomer at the National Science Assembly in Taiyuan, in central Shanxi province, which brought together some 500 scientists and space policy scholars from across China.