Cape Canaveral (AP) — An approaching storm threatens to delay NASA’s next launch attempt for its new moon rocket, which has already been grounded for weeks due to a fuel leak.
A tropical depression in the southern Caribbean is moving toward Florida and could become a major hurricane.
Managers announced Friday that the rocket is now ready to blast off on its first test flight, after a further hydrogen leak was discovered during a fuel test earlier in the week. It will be the first time in 50 years that a crewed capsule will orbit the Moon. The spacecraft will carry mannequins but no astronauts.
The teams will continue to monitor the forecast and decide later Saturday whether to not only delay the test flight, but to move the rocket off the pad and back to the hangar. It is not clear when the next launch attempt will be – whether in October or November – if the rocket has to be sheltered indoors.
The priority is to stay on the launch pad and try for liftoff on Tuesday, “but there’s still some uncertainty in the forecast,” said Tom Whitemayer of NASA, deputy associate administrator for the Exploration System.
It takes three days of preparation to bring the rocket back to Kennedy Space Center’s Large Vehicle Assembly Building, a 4-mile (6.4 km) journey lasting several hours.
“I don’t think we’re cutting it close,” Whitmire told reporters. “We’re taking it one step at a time.”
The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket can withstand gusts of 85 mph (137 km/h) on the pad, but only 46 mph (74 km/h) once underway.
This will be the third launch attempt for the Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful ever built by NASA. Fuel leaks and other technical problems killed the first two attempts in late August and early September.
Although hydrogen fuel leaked through newly installed seals during Wednesday’s dress rehearsal, the launch team managed to contain the leak to acceptable levels by reducing the flow and depressurizing the lines. That gave the launch team confidence to go ahead with Tuesday’s launch attempt, officials said.
The 30-year-old space shuttle program also saw plenty of hydrogen fuel leaks and hurricane-related rollbacks, managers said. The main engines of the moon rocket are actually upgraded versions of the ones that fly on the shuttle.
In addition, the Space Force has extended certification of onboard batteries that are part of the flight safety system — at least until early October.
NASA has only two chances to launch the rocket — Tuesday and Oct. 2 — before the two-week blackout period begins. The next launch period will open on October 17.
Astronauts will board the spacecraft for a second test flight around the Moon in 2024. A third mission, targeted for 2025, will see a pair of astronauts land on the moon.
