Ground teams at Kennedy Space Center prepared on Saturday for a second try at launching NASA's towering, next-generation moon rocket on its debut flight, hoping to have remedied engineering problems that foiled the initial countdown five days ago, News.az reports citing BBC.

Launch controllers began filling the 32-story tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with fuel early on Saturday ahead of a 2:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT) liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, committing to a second attempt at a mission that will kick off NASA's ambitious moon-to-Mars Artemis program 50 years after the last Apollo lunar mission.

The previous launch bid on Monday ended with technical problems forcing a halt to the countdown and postponement of the uncrewed flight.

Tests indicated technicians have since fixed a leaky fuel line that contributed to Monday's canceled launch, Jeremy Parsons, a deputy program manager at the space center, told reporters on Friday.

Two other key issues on the rocket itself - a faulty engine temperature sensor and some cracks in insulation foam - have been resolved to NASA's satisfaction, Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin told reporters on Thursday night.