It will be “difficult” for NASA to make a new attempt to launch its massive moon rocket in October, a US space agency official said on Tuesday, adding that a November liftoff seems more likely.
The SLS rocket, the most powerful rocket ever designed by NASA, had to return to its storage hangar overnight to escape Hurricane Ian.
The next possible launch window – determined by the position of the Earth and Moon – is from October 17 to 31, then November 12 to 27.
“We know it could go to the end of October at the earliest, but we’ll go into the mid-November window,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told CNN.
At a press conference, NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free was also asked about the chances of the rocket’s October lift-off attempt.
“I don’t think we’re going to take anything off the table,” he said. “But it’s going to be hard.”
After the hurricane passes, NASA will have time to replace the rocket’s self-destruct system batteries, a complex operation that will be carried out in a storage hangar.
Raising the 98-meter-tall (320 ft) rocket and moving it to its launch pad before configuring it for takeoff will also take several days.
The latest setback will therefore significantly push back the launch of the long-awaited Artemis 1 mission.
Two last-minute launch attempts in late August and then early September had already been aborted due to technical problems, including a leak while filling the rocket’s tanks with fuel.
Fifty years after the last mission of the Apollo program, Artemis 1 will be used to ensure the Orion capsule, atop a rocket, is safe to carry crews to the moon in the future.
