WASHINGTON: NASA has canceled Tuesday’s scheduled launch of its historic uncrewed mission to the moon due to a tropical storm that is forecast to strengthen as it nears Florida.
“NASA is abandoning a launch opportunity … and preparing for a rollback (from the launch pad), while continuing to watch the weather forecast associated with Tropical Storm Ian,” he said Saturday. ” he said on Saturday.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Ian is due to “rapidly intensify” over the weekend as it moves toward Florida, home to the Kennedy Space Center, where the rocket is scheduled to launch.
A decision on whether to return the giant Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building is to be made by the Artemis 1 team on Sunday.
On the launch pad, the orange-and-white SLS rocket can withstand wind gusts of up to 137 kilometers (85 miles) per hour. But if it is to be shelved, the current launch window, which runs until October 4, will be missed.
The next launch window will run from October 17 to 31, with the possibility of one takeoff per day except for October 24-26 and 28.
The Artemis 1 space mission hopes to test the SLS, as well as the unmanned Orion capsule that sits aloft, in preparation for future manned trips to the Moon.
A successful Artemis 1 mission would come as a major relief to the US space agency after years of delays and cost overruns.
But another setback would be a setback for NASA, after two previous launch attempts were aborted when the rocket encountered technical problems, including a fuel leak.
