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More delays for NASA's moon rocket test, fuelling stalled

In this photo provided by NASA, the Space Launch System rocket with the Orion spacecraft stands on a mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B, Monday, April 4, 2022, as the Artemis I launch team conducts the wet dress rehearsal test at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP) In this photo provided by NASA, the Space Launch System rocket with the Orion spacecraft stands on a mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B, Monday, April 4, 2022, as the Artemis I launch team conducts the wet dress rehearsal test at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -

NASA's dress rehearsal for its mega moon rocket is off until at least this weekend because of a pair of technical problems that kept stalling a fuelling test.

Launch managers tried twice -- once Sunday and again Monday -- to load nearly 1 million gallons of fuel into the 322-foot (98-metre) rocket known as Space Launch System, or SLS. Balky fans at the launch pad thwarted the first effort, while a stuck valve halted the second attempt.

The countdown test is the last major milestone before the rocket's long-awaited launch debut. The Orion crew capsule atop the rocket will be hurled to the moon in a passenger-less test flight, looping around but not landing before returning to Earth. NASA is targeting June, depending on how the demo goes.

"We didn't get through everything we wanted, but certainly learned a great deal that we'll take into our next attempt," said NASA's Jim Free, who's in charge of exploration systems development.

Speaking Tuesday at the Space Foundation's annual conference in Colorado Springs, Free said the launch team will wait until SpaceX launches four private passengers to the International Space Station before taking another crack at the fuelling test. Liftoff is scheduled for Friday from Kennedy Space Center, barely a mile from the pad holding the SLS rocket.

The dress rehearsal began Friday and should have lasted just two days. A severe thunderstorm resulted in four lightning strikes at the pad Saturday, but officials did not believe that caused any of the technical problems.

After this first moonshot in NASA's Artemis program, NASA will send a crew around the moon in 2024 and then attempt the first lunar landing by astronauts in 2025 or so. Astronauts last walked on the moon in 1972 during NASA's Apollo program.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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