(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — A vehicle of interest has been located amid the search for a woman who was abducted while out for a run in Memphis, police said.
Eliza Fletcher, 34, was last seen at approximately 4:30 a.m. Friday on Central Avenue in midtown Memphis before being forced into a dark-colored GMC Terrain, the Memphis Police Department said.
Memphis police said in an update Saturday that the car has been found and a man in it has been detained.
“Eliza Fletcher has not been located. This is an ongoing investigation,” police said.
Memphis police said they were dispatched at around 7:45 a.m. to assist the University of Memphis police “regarding a missing person” in the area of Central Avenue and Zach Curlin Street.
The woman was jogging in the area when an unknown person approached her and she was “reportedly forced into an SUV and taken from the scene,” Memphis police said in a statement.
The suspect was believed to be in a dark-colored GMC Terrain traveling westbound on Central Avenue, police said.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is assisting in the search for Fletcher, said there currently is no known direction of travel for the suspect’s vehicle.
Fletcher was wearing a pink jogging top and purple running shorts at the time.
Authorities have released images of Fletcher and the SUV they believe she was forced into.
St. Mary’s Episcopal School said in a statement on social media that Fletcher is a “beloved” junior kindergarten teacher at the all-girls prep school.
Fletcher was described by police as 5 foot 6 inches and 137 pounds with brown hair and green eyes.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Memphis Police Department at 901-528-2274 or 901-545-2677, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND or 911.
ABC News’ Alexandra Faul contributed to this report.
(TUPELO, Miss.) — An incident allegedly involving a stolen plane and threats against a local Walmart ended in what one official described as the “best-case scenario,” with no injuries and an inexperienced pilot safely landing the plane.
The saga unfolded over several hours in northeast Mississippi Saturday morning. Tupelo police warned residents around 6:30 a.m. local time that a pilot was flying over the city and “is threatening to intentionally crash” into a Walmart.
The pilot was identified by Tupelo police as 29-year-old Cory Wayne Patterson, an employee of Tupelo Aviation, which provides services like fueling at the Tupelo Regional Airport. He has worked for the company for the past 10 years and works as a lineman, fueling the aircraft, according to Tupelo Police Chief John Quaka.
Shortly after 5 a.m., Patterson is alleged to have stolen from the airport a Beechcraft King Air C-90 twin-engine aircraft, which he had access to as an employee of Tupelo Aviation, then called 911 at approximately 5:23 a.m. and made his threat against the local Walmart. Police evacuated the store and surrounding area, police said.
As the plane circled over Tupelo, police were able to talk to the pilot directly, according to Quaka. Negotiators were “able to convince him to not carry out this deed and to land the aircraft at Tupelo Airport,” Quaka told reporters during a press briefing Saturday.
The stolen aircraft is a sophisticated and complicated one to fly, according to experts. Patterson has “some flight instruction,” but did not have experience landing an aircraft and is not believed to be a licensed pilot, Quaka said. According to FAA records, Patterson only held a student pilot certificate, which was issued in 2013.
“A private pilot assisted us in helping this pilot complete this” landing, Quaka said.
Though upon final approach, for some unknown reason, the pilot aborted that landing and flew north, away from Tupelo, Quaka said.
At approximately 9:30 a.m., when the plane was close to running out of fuel, Patterson posted a message on Facebook that “in essence, it said goodbye,” according to the chief.
Around 10:08 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration lost radar contact with the aircraft. When a negotiator reestablished contact at 10:12 a.m., the pilot “confirmed he had landed in a field and was uninjured,” Quaka said.
The plane landed in a soybean field in Ripley, Mississippi, located more than 40 miles north of Tupelo. The pilot was the only person on board, the FAA said.
Patterson was taken into custody and has been charged with grand larceny and making terroristic threats, Lee County Sheriff’s Department online records show. A motive is not known at this time, Quaka said.
It is unclear if Patterson has an attorney. ABC News has left messages with the Tupelo Regional Airport and Tupelo Aviation.
Tupelo Mayor Todd Jordan said he has spoken with Patterson’s family.
“I believe that after the initial threat, he did not want to hurt himself, or anyone else, and I believe that we had what you would think would be the best-case scenario,” Jordan said during the briefing.
“No one was injured. The suspect is now in custody. He will get the help he needs, as far as whatever he’s dealing with,” he continued. “I can’t thank all these organizations enough to bring him in safely.”
(TUPELO, Miss.) — A small plane is down and its pilot is in police custody after threatening to intentionally crash into a Walmart in Tupelo, Mississippi, the Benton County Sheriff’s office confirmed to ABC News Saturday.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to ABC News that the plane landed in a field in Ripley, Mississippi. The agency said the pilot was the only person on board.
The Tupelo Police Department identified the pilot as Cory Wayne Patterson, an employee at Tupelo Aviation. Patterson allegedly stole a Beechcraft King Air C-90 twin engine aircraft from the Tupelo Regional Airport just after 5 a.m. Patterson had access to the plane as an employee of Tupelo Aviation, which operates out of the airport.
Once the plane landed, Patterson was taken into custody. Patterson is being charged with grand larceny and making terroristic threats, and federal charges are likely as well, Tupelo Police Department Chief John Quaka said at a press conference Saturday.
Police were notified that an airplane was flying over Tupelo at around 5 a.m. local time. The plane’s pilot made contact with E911 and was threatening to crash intentionally, according to a statement from police.
Negotiators were “able to convince him to not carry out this deed and to land the aircraft at Tupelo Airport,” Quaka said.
Patterson eventually aborted that landing and flew north, away from Tupelo. At 9:30 a.m., when the plane was close to running out of fuel, Patterson posted a message on Facebook that was “in essence, a goodbye,” according to the chief.
Police worked with Walmart and a nearby Dodge’s market to evacuate those stores and disperse people as much as possible.
“Citizens are asked to avoid that area until an all clear is given. With the mobility of an airplane of that type the danger zone is much larger than even Tupelo,” police said in a statement.
Flightradar24 showed the pilot had been flying in random circles far to the northwest of Tupelo, while flying very low and changing altitudes between 500 and 1500 mean sea level.
Mississippi state law enforcement were “closely monitoring” the situation, Gov. Tate Reeves confirmed on Twitter. The FAA said it is coordinating with local law enforcement and will investigate.
The pilot’s condition is currently unknown.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(JACKSON, Miss.) — Jackson, Mississippi, resident Velma Warner says the city’s most recent flooding brings up memories of two years past, when Pearl River floods forced many in the Canton Club neighborhood of Northeast Jackson to leave their homes.
Though Warner and her family had time to prepare their home for potential water breach, the effect flooding would have on the city’s water supply posed another–not entirely unpredictable–issue, she says. One month after the city issued a boil water notice, damage to the nearby O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant has left Jackson’s water supply contaminated and largely depleted.
“This is an ongoing issue, like years of knowing that the water plant needed a lot of work,” Warner said to ABC News. “I think our concern as citizens is even after all of this, after they put all the money into the water plant, will we have qualified staff to continue to run the plant?”
As city and state officials facilitate plant repairs and establish state-run water distribution sites throughout the city, making “significant gains”, local organizations such as Operation Good continue to work tirelessly in their efforts to get drinking water to as many as possible. Operation Good’s program manager Gino Womack says demand has even increased throughout the week, adding that the nonprofit went through hundreds of cases of water within an hour. Womack says contributions across the country have made an incredible impact on their ability to keep up and encouraged engagement in their #CureViolence program.
“It’s good to see the people, everybody, coming together, working together to get through this time that’s going on. And there’s people from outside the city…that have been very very supportive of things going on here,” Womack said to ABC News. “A lot of their support has enabled us to continue providing water to the citizens.”
Community members like Deon Thompson, a neighbor of Warner’s and an advocate for his community for the 20 years he’s lived there, has also taken it upon himself to get safe drinking water to as many people as he can. He says that for the first couple of days, water was nearly impossible to find in Jackson, but state distribution sites run by the National Guard have made it more accessible.
“There was some people that actually didn’t know about the distribution sites that [the state] had set up,” Thompson said to ABC News. “So we were able to go to those sites and get water for our communities, and then we stretch beyond our community to the others, like the elderly and those that actually couldn’t get out because we do have some disabled people in the neighborhood as well.”
Thompson, who was also affected by flooding in 2020, has lived throughout Jackson for over 50 years–his entire life. While this week’s flooding was not as severe as it has been, coupled with a failing water treatment plant and racial disparities indicate severe ongoing issues that may lead others in the neighborhood, including his elderly mother, to leave for good.
And with chances of rain on the radar this weekend, he says some residents are waiting for “a definite” before moving their belongings, paying storage fees rather than taking the risk of having to go through it all again.
“The flooding is one thing that has been going on and this water problem, with us drinking it, didn’t just start like back in July as some people say. This has been going on for the past three or four decades,” he said, adding that it reminds him of the Flint water crisis in which lead contamination in the city’s water supply hit communities of color hard.
“Race plays a very important part in this,” he said as Jackson has an 82.5% Black population according to the U.S. Census.
Thompson also voiced his concerns about how housing developments around Ross Barnett Reservoir, Jackson’s historic and current major source of potable water, have contributed to the flooding, a concern echoed by Warner. With this in mind, Thompson says he is focused on ensuring that the underlying causes of Jackson’s water emergency don’t “fall through the cracks.”
“We’re gonna assist and do whatever we can,” he said of seeing that officials make the necessary efforts to resolve the crisis.
“The progress that is being made there now as we even speak, it’s little progress, but little progress is better than no progress. And we have to kind of look at it from that standpoint and be very sure that our government officials are gonna do what they said they’re gonna do,” he added. “We’re gonna have to get through this here one day at a time. We’re gonna help one another, and we need to encourage one another because we don’t want people to leave.”
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Body camera footage released by the Columbus Police Department shows events preceding the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Donovan Lewis.
“Donovan was a typical 20-year-old kid with a ton of friends,” Rex Elliott, the Lewis family attorney, said at a press conference Thursday. “Certainly, he had his challenges in life, but he was a very good person and loved very much.”
Lewis family members held each other close, some covering their ears and looking away as the body camera footage played on a screen at the press conference.
“There can be no question that excessive deadly force was recklessly used by Officer Anderson when he shot and killed an unarmed black man,” Elliott said.
Columbus police say they traveled to Lewis’ apartment located in the Columbus, Ohio, Hilltop neighborhood around 2 a.m. Tuesday morning to arrest him on three separate charges — domestic violence, assault and improper handling of a firearm.
When police arrived, they identified themselves and stood outside the apartment for approximately eight minutes asking those inside to exit, the footage shows.
Two people eventually exit the apartment and police enter with a K-9, finding Lewis in bed, the video shows.
Officer Ricky Anderson, a 30-year veteran with the Columbus Police Department and K-9 unit, appears to open fire almost immediately after police open the bedroom door to where Lewis was sleeping.
In the footage, Lewis is seen raising his hands as he lies in bed. Anderson is then seen firing the single gunshot.
“Officer Anderson opened the door and almost immediately fired a shot into the bedroom as Donovan was trying to get out of bed,” Elliot said. “Donovan was unarmed and he was abiding by police commands to come out of his room when he was shot in cold blood by Officer Anderson.”
Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said Lewis appeared to be holding something in his hand, but only a vape pen was found on his bed and that there was no sighting of a weapon, at a press conference city officials held Tuesday following the shooting.
Lewis’ family plans to file a lawsuit against Anderson and the city of Columbus, according to Elliott.
“They want this officer punished, not permitted to be out on the street again,” Elliott said.
Anderson has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to the Columbus Police Department.
Mark Collins, the attorney representing Anderson, issued a statement Thursday obtained by ABC News, calling for a “thorough investigation.”
“When we analyze police-involved shootings, we must look to the totality of the circumstances, and we are expressly forbidden from using 20/20 hindsight, because unlike all of us, officers are not afforded the luxury of armchair reflection when they are faced with rapidly evolving, volatile encounters in dangerous situations,” Collins said.
A study released in February 2021, showed Franklin County, Ohio — which encompasses Columbus — has one of the highest rates of police shootings in Ohio and in the nation.
The study, conducted by the Ohio Alliance for Innovation in Population Health, ranked Franklin County 18th among the 100 most populous counties nationally on average for annual police-related fatalities.
In Columbus, there have been 62 shootings involving Columbus police officers since 2018, including Lewis’ shooting. Of those 62 shootings, 19 have resulted in a death, according to data from Columbus police and the Columbus Dispatch.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Police said they are searching for a woman who was abducted while out for a run early Friday morning in Memphis.
Eliza Fletcher, 34, was last seen at approximately 4:30 a.m. Friday on Central Avenue in midtown Memphis before being forced into a dark-colored GMC Terrain, the Memphis Police Department said.
Memphis police said they were dispatched at around 7:45 a.m. to assist the University of Memphis police “regarding a missing person” in the area of Central Avenue and Zach Curlin Street.
The woman was jogging in the area when an unknown person approached her and she was “reportedly forced into an SUV and taken from the scene,” Memphis police said in a statement.
The suspect was believed to be in a dark-colored GMC Terrain traveling westbound on Central Avenue, police said.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is assisting in the search for Fletcher, said there currently is no known direction of travel for the suspect’s vehicle.
Fletcher was wearing a pink jogging top and purple running shorts at the time.
Authorities have released images of Fletcher and the SUV they believe she was forced into.
St. Mary’s Episcopal School said in a statement on social media that Fletcher is a “beloved” junior kindergarten teacher at the all-girls prep school.
Fletcher was described by police as 5 foot 6 inches and 137 pounds with brown hair and green eyes.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Memphis Police Department at 901-528-2274 or 901-545-2677, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND or 911.
ABC News’ Alexandra Faul contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Excessive heat and red flag warnings are in effect for much of California this weekend, as the state battles several blazes amid scorching temperatures.
Record-high temperatures could be set this Labor Day weekend, from San Diego to Los Angeles and up into Sacramento.
Residents in the state are urged to continue to conserve energy amid a heatwave that has tested the state’s energy grid, with temperatures across the state 10 to 20 degrees hotter than is typical this time of year.
“This kind of weather drives up energy demand, straining power generation equipment as people run their air conditioning,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in a statement Thursday.
Since Wednesday, “two new fires have started that threaten transmission lines that supply power to millions of homes,” his office said.
Newsom declared a state of emergency on Wednesday due to the high temperatures, to temporarily increase energy production and reduce demand. For the third day in a row, the California Independent System Operator, which operates the state’s power grid, issued an alert on Friday asking residents to reduce their electricity consumption during the late afternoon and evening hours.
California ISO President Elliot Mainzer said the grid experienced no “serious problems” on Thursday due to energy conservation efforts, as the prolonged heatwave pushed demand to the highest levels since September 2017.
“The hottest weather in this extended heatwave is still ahead of us,” Mainzer said in a video statement Friday. “Much of California will see record triple-digit temperatures with only moderate cooling at night, right through the Labor Day holiday weekend and into the middle of next week. So electricity conservation is going to be essential in keeping the power flowing to California without interruption.”
Amid the soaring temperatures, firefighters are also battling several blazes in California.
One of the newest threats is the Mill Fire in northern California’s Siskiyou County, which has quickly burned nearly 900 acres since starting Friday afternoon amid a red flag warning for the area and poses a danger to structures, powerlines and transmission lines.
Multiple evacuation orders and warnings are in place as Cal Fire warns of a “dangerous rate of spread” for the wildfire.
Among the largest active blazes in the state, the Route Fire has burned more than 5,000 acres in Castaic in Los Angeles County since igniting on Wednesday. It was nearly 40% contained as of Friday morning.
The Border 32 Fire in San Diego County has also burned more than 4,400 acres since Wednesday. It was 20% contained as of Friday morning.
ABC News’ Jennifer Harrison, Daniel Amarante and Max Golembo contributed to this report.
(PLAINFIELD, Ind.) — Police in Indiana are looking for a missing 4-year-old girl who reportedly wandered from her home nearly 24 hours ago and is believed to be in extreme danger.
Fiedwenya Fiefe was last seen around 1 p.m. Thursday after she left her home in the Legacy Farms neighborhood in Plainfield, 17 miles southwest of Indianapolis, authorities said.
Fiedwenya has autism and is nonverbal, so she may not be able to ask for help, Plainfield Deputy Chief Joe Aldridge told reporters Friday morning as the search entered its second day.
“She has a history of leaving the residence unattended but they generally find her quickly and get her back,” Aldridge said.
The state has issued a Silver Alert, alerting the public to missing and endangered adults or children, for Fiedwenya, which noted that she “is believed to be in extreme danger and may require medical assistance.”
Dozens of first responders are searching for Fiedwenya, primarily concentrating on her neighborhood as well as two nearby, Aldridge said.
The girl is drawn to water, and there are approximately 14 ponds in Legacy Farms and a nearby neighborhood that they are actively searching, he said. Drones, rescue canines, off-road vehicles, watercraft and sonar equipment are being used in the search, police said.
No foul play is suspected at this time, Aldridge said.
“The family, as you would imagine, is very devastated,” he said. “They are cooperating with our agency.”
Police have asked residents in the area to check their property for the missing child as well as any exterior home video. Fiedwenya was captured on a resident’s footage walking down her street Thursday shortly after the family reported her missing to police, Aldridge said.
Police described Fiedwenya as a Black girl who is 3 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 35 pounds. She was last seen wearing a long pink dress or nightgown, police said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon’s latest survey on reported sexual assaults in the military show that in 2021 an estimated 8.4% of active duty women and 1.5% of active duty men indicated experiencing at least one incident of unwanted sexual contact.
The survey also showed that despite major efforts to address the issue of sexual assault in the military, including reforms instituted last year, women in the military services have significantly lost trust in the military to follow through on their cases or treat them with respect.
Using a new metric for the survey, carried out every two years, the number of service members who reported they had experienced unwanted sexual contact increased significantly, to a record 35,800. However, the change in metric made it difficult to make a full comparison to the estimated 20,400 reported in the most recent survey.
Unwanted sexual contact is defined as ranging from groping or abusive sexual contact, to attempted sexual contact, to rape. The new survey found the highest increase was in the category for non-penetrative sexual assault and attempted sexual assault.
The number of sexual assaults on service members reported in 2021 also spiked to a new high of 7,249, representing a 13% increase over last year’s numbers. The increased number of reports was due in large measure to a 25.6% increase in the number of reported incidents in the Army, a number far higher than the 9.2 % increase reported by the Navy, the 1.7% increase in the Marine Corps, and the 2.4% increase in the Air Force.
“The results are a tragic reminder of the challenges we face and the absolute need for continued leadership engagement, historic reforms that remain underway, and a focus on the latest and prevention so we can achieve the foundational change we need,” Elizabeth Foster, executive director of the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency, told reporters on Thursday.
“These numbers are tragic and extremely disappointing,” she added. “On an individual level, it is devastating to conceptualize that these numbers mean that over 35,000 service members lives and careers were irrevocably changed by these crimes.”
According to the Pentagon study, 8.4% of active-duty female service members are estimated to have experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact in 2021, an increase from 6.2%, the highest percentage since data measurements began in 2006. The figure for men increased to 1.5% up from .7%, the second-highest level recorded.
There were steep 25 to 30% drops in the trust that service members have in the military’s system to handle their cases and protect their privacy after reporting an incident.
For example, 39% of women said they trusted the system, down from 66% in 2018, and the number of female service members who said the military protected their privacy following the report of an incident dropped steeply by 34%, down from 63% in 2018.
(NEW YORK) — NASA kicked off Monday its plan to send an unmanned space capsule into the moon’s orbit, marking the initial launch in an ambitious plan to establish a long term presence on the moon for scientific discovery and economic development.
The space capsule, called Artemis I, will travel for roughly 40 days — reaching as close as 60 miles from the moon, and then 40,000 miles above the moon when orbiting over its dark side — before landing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.
After the launch was scrubbed, the next attempt will occur Sept. 3.
Sep 02, 9:32 AM EDT
Artemis still on track to launch Saturday
NASA officials announced Friday that Artemis I is still on track to launch Saturday afternoon between 2:17 p.m. ET and 4:17 p.m. ET.
Jeremy Parsons, deputy manager of exploration ground systems at the Kennedy Space Center, said pre-launch tests and checks are “proceeding right on schedule.”
Melody Lovin, launch weather officer at the U.S. Space Force, said the weather forecast is currently a 60% go overall and 80% toward the end of the two-hour window, If the launch needs to be delayed until Monday, the forecast is a 70% go.
“I do not expect weather to be a showstopper by any means for either launch window,” she said.
Sep 01, 6:57 PM EDT
Artemis launch attempt still a-go for Saturday
The Artemis I launch attempt is still planned for Saturday from 2:17-4:17 p.m. ET, NASA officials said during a press conference Thursday.
“We’re comfortable with our risk posture,” Artemis mission manager Mike Serafin said. “That said, there’s no guarantee that we’re going to get off on Saturday, but we’re going to try.”
If not Saturday, the next launch attempt would be Monday from 5:12 p.m.-6:42 p.m. ET, officials said. Tuesday could also be an option, after which the next earliest launch attempt would be Sept. 19, Serafin said.
Sunday is no longer a backup option because the spacecraft would fly into an eclipse scenario, which would not allow it to get the power it needs from the sun.
If the launch is Saturday, the mission will be 37 days long, with the splashdown on Oct. 11, Serafin said.
-ABC News’ Gio Benitez and Meredith Deliso
Aug 30, 7:40 PM EDT
Artemis not launching Friday due to weather, NASA says
NASA officials said the Artemis I new launch date that was initially scheduled for Friday had to be moved due to bad weather.
The weather is 60% no go for Friday but looks to be more favorable Saturday.
“Looking forward to Saturday, weather would be a little bit different than what we experienced yesterday,” Mark Berger, launch weather officer with the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, said during a media briefing Tuesday. “We will have a fairly strong onshore flow, and so that does favor showers and possibly a few thunderstorms moving in from the coast during the morning and early afternoon hours.”
He added, “I’m optimistic that we’ll have at least some clear air to work with during the afternoon to count on Saturday.”
The window for launch on Saturday kicks off at 2:17 p.m. ET and ends at 4:17 p.m. ET. If need be, the launch can be pushed back to Monday.
If the launch does not occur by Monday, Artemis I will have to roll back to the Vehicle Assembly Building and won’t be able to launch until later in September.
This is because the flight termination batteries, which allow Artemis to be blown up if it veers off course, run low after 25 days.
-ABC News’ Gio Benitez and Gina Sunseri
Aug 30, 7:05 PM EDT
Problem with Artemis engine may have actually been faulty sensor: Officials
The issue with an engine on Artemis I that led to the launch on Monday being scrubbed may not have been an engine issue at all.
NASA officials said Monday that engine three did not chill down to a temperature of 500 degrees Rankine, or 40 degrees Fahrenheit, which is needed for ignition, compared to the other three engines.
However, John Honeycutt, manager of the Space Launch System Program from Marshall Space Flight Center, said the problem may have actually come from a faulty sensor, rather than the engine not cooling down enough.
“I think we’ve got enough data to put the story together but we’ve still got to go put the pieces together,” Honeycutt said Tuesday.
Aug 30, 6:23 PM EDT
NASA moves Artemis launch date to Saturday
NASA officials announced Tuesday that they’ve moved the launch of Artemis I to Saturday.
Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, told reporters during a media briefing that the mission management team met earlier in the day and agreed on the new date.
“We agreed on what was called option one, which was to operationally change the loading procedure and start our engine chill down earlier,” he said.
One of the reasons for the scrub on Monday was because engine three did not cool down enough to the point needed for ignition, he explained yesterday.
“We also agreed to do some work at the pad to address the leak that we saw and we also agreed to move our launch date to Saturday, September the 3rd,” Sarafin added. “We are going to reconvene the mission management team on Thursday, September the 1st, to review our flight rationale and our overall readiness.”
Aug 29, 1:21 PM EDT
NASA administrator says launch scrubs are normal
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said it’s normal for launches to be scrubbed after the Artemis I launch was delayed Monday for multiple reasons.
“I am very proud of this launch team. They have solved several problems along the way and they got to one that needed time to be solved,” he told reporters.
“I want to say, understand that scrubs are just a part of this program on the space flight,” Nelson said.
Nelson spoke about the seventh mission of Space Shuttle Columbia, which he flew in January 1986.
“We scrubbed four times on the pad,” Nelson said.
He added, “It was the better part of a month and, looking back, after the fifth try got off to a perfect mission. It would have not been a good day had we launched on any one of those four scrubs. So when you’re dealing in a high-risk business and spaceflight is risky, that’s what you do.”
Aug 29, 2:11 PM EDT
Engine does not need to be replaced on Artemis, NASA says
NASA officials said there is no sign one of the engines needs to replaced on the Artemis I rocket after the launch was scrubbed.
During a media briefing Monday, Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, told reporters engine three did not cool down enough to the point needed for ignition.
“Do we need to remove and replace an engine? There is no indication we are at that scenario at this point,” he said.
Aug 29, 1:51 PM EDT
NASA breaks down details behind Artemis launch scrub
NASA officials on Monday offered more details behind the decision to postpone the Artemis I launch.
Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager, explained engine three was not cooling down enough to the temperature needed before ignition.
“I don’t recall exactly where the engines were but engines one, two and four were pretty close to that. Three was not getting there,” he told reporters during a media briefing Monday afternoon.
Sarafin said there were other issues earlier in the day including tanking — filling the rocket with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen — being delayed for about an hour after the Kennedy Space Center went into a lightning alert as well as a hydrogen leak, although both were resolved.
“So the combination of not being able to get engine three to reach chill down and then the vent valve issue that they saw at the inner tank really caused us to pause today and we felt like we needed a little more time,” he said.
Sarafin added that he is hopeful about the second launch opportunity on Sept. 2.
“There is a non-zero chance we have a launch opportunity on Friday,” he said.
“But we need time, we really need time to look at all the all the information, all the data and, you know, we’re gonna play all nine innings here and we’re not ready to give up yet,” Sarafin continued.
Aug 29, 1:21 PM EDT
NASA administrator says launch scrubs are normal
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said it’s normal for launches to be scrubbed after the Artemis I launch was delayed Monday for multiple reasons.
“I am very proud of this launch team. They have solved several problems along the way and they got to one that needed time to be solved,” he told reporters.
“I want to say, understand that scrubs are just a part of this program on the space flight,” Nelson said.
Nelson spoke about the seventh mission of Space Shuttle Columbia, which he flew in January 1986.
“We scrubbed four times on the pad,” Nelson said.
He added, “It was the better part of a month and, looking back, after the fifth try got off to a perfect mission. It would have not been a good day had we launched on any one of those four scrubs. So when you’re dealing in a high-risk business and spaceflight is risky, that’s what you do.”
Aug 29, 10:20 AM EDT
VP Harris praises NASA team behind Artemis launch
Vice President Kamala Harris praised the NASA team behind the Artemis I mission after the launch had to be scrubbed Monday due to an engine problem.
Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff had been visiting the Kennedy Space Center before the launch was postponed.
The scrubbed launch was “about showing the great work that happens here,” Harris told reporters.
“These exceptional public servants, these exceptional skilled professionals who have the ability to see what is possible and what has never been done before. How exciting is that?” she said.
According to a White House official, Harris and Emhoff will continue with their visit under a revised itinerary.
“She met with astronauts at NASA Operations Support Building II and will proceed to a tour of Artemis II and Artemis III hardware as planned. The Vice President will gaggle following the tour and then depart,” the official said.
Aug 29, 9:40 AM EDT
‘We don’t launch until it’s right,’ says NASA administrator
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson defended the scrubbing of the Artemis I launch, saying the launch shouldn’t take place until the team is sure it’s ready.
“We don’t launch until it’s right,” he said during an interview on NASA TV Monday morning.
“There are certain guidelines. And I think it’s just illustrative that this is a very complicated machine, a very complicated system, and all those things have to work, and you don’t want to light the candle until it’s ready to go,” he said.
Nelson said the engineers will continue to “stress” and “test” the rocket to make sure it’s ready by the next attempt, which is Sept. 2.
Earlier in the day, Nelson had welcomed several Biden administration officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, to the Kennedy Space Center ahead of the launch.
He said the vice president has been briefed and the White House will continue to receive regular updates.
Aug 29, 8:48 AM EDT
NASA scrubs Artemis I launch
NASA announced a few minutes after Artemis I was initially scheduled to lift off that the launch has been scrubbed.
Engineers said the problem came from a liquid hydrogen line that was not chilled enough inside one of the rocket’s four core-stage engines, which needs to occur before they can be ignited.
The next attempt will occur on Sept. 2.
Aug 29, 8:31 AM EDT
Artemis launch delayed due to storms, rocket troubleshooting
Artemis I will likely not be launching at 8:33 a.m. ET as originally planned after NASA ran into several delays in its preparation to send it into space.
The process of tanking, which includes filling the rocket’s core stage with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, was delayed due to some passing storms and lightning in the area, NASA said.
Moreover, a leak was discovered in the hydrogen fuel line, which NASA quickly resolved. The leak concentration was “at an acceptable level,” NASA said.
Engineers also discovered a potential crack in the inner stage flange, which connects two of the rocket’s cylinders.
The countdown clock is currently paused at T-40 and the launch can go as late as 10:33 a.m. ET If that window passes, the next attempt at launch will be Sept. 2.
