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A piece of Michigan rests onboard the twice-delayed Artemis 1 moon mission

The moon is pictured in this image from December 6, 2006. A new study shows the moon's interior might contain water.
Roberto Schmidt
/
AFP/Getty Images
The moon is pictured in this image from December 6, 2006. A new study shows the moon's interior might contain water.

A faulty sensor and fuel leak forced NASA to re-schedule the launch of its Artemis 1 moon mission.

The agency must wait at least a few weeks, timing it so the solar arrays powering batteries on the Orion spacecraft atop the rocket remain in sunlight during its journey to the moon.

Artemis features a bit of Michigan onboard, seeds super-enriched with the building blocks of protein.

Michigan State University Professor Frederica Brandizzi developed the seeds to better withstand the rigors of space flight and eventually provide a sustainable food source on the moon.

“We expect that what we learn from this experiment will be translatable to crops. So yes the intention is to send seeds for crops to space relatively soon. But we have to take the necessary steps before we jump to that.” said Professor Brandizzi.

The private company Space-X plans to launch its own massive rocket soon which will carry the Starship spacecraft astronauts need to land on the moon.

Quinn Klinefelter is a host and Senior News Editor for 101.9 WDET, anchoring midday newscasts and preparing reports for WDET, NPR and the BBC. Klinefelter joined WDET in 1998 after earning a M.A. from the nation’s top-ranked journalism school, the University of Missouri-Columbia, and working as a sports correspondent for BBC Radio 4 and as a talk show host, anchor and reporter for Wisconsin Public Radio.