STENNIS SPACE CENTER (WGNO)— 3,2,1 Blast Off! Wait a minute! What was suppose to be NASA’s triumphant return to the moon with Artemis 1, did not go as planned. A watch party at Stennis Space Center witnessed the up and down reactions to the grounded liftoff.
The “all systems go” for the launch of NASA”s first Artemis mission quickly turned to a “no go.”
“I was a little disappointed but not everything goes according to plan,” Aaron Dougherty said.
Artemis 1’s launch was scrubbed due to an engine issue. The Space Launch System (SLC) rocket and Orion capsule were set to go on a 1.3 million miles journey around the moon, over the course of 42 days. This mission won’t have a crew onboard.
“It is cool to see that so many people collaborated to make this happen,” Dougherty said.
Dougherty is an intern with Aerojet Rocketdyne, the company that helped build some of the Artemis rocket engines.
“It is a big milestone. I can’t wait to be part of more of it. Hopefully I have a long future ahead,” he said.
The Gonsoulin family and others visited Stennis’ Infinity Space Center for today’s launch watch party.
“The public’s perception of science isn’t at an all-time high, so these are the types of things that can inspire the future generations,” Mark Gonsoulin said.
Although no one got to see Artemis 1 blast off just yet, excitement continues to grow for the must-see event.
“It is going to be real big anticipation. Now it is even bigger,” Dougherty said.
There are two more dates for the rocket launch—this Friday and then next Monday if Friday’s launch is scrubbed again. In the meantime NASA says crews are working to quickly fix today’s problems.