Faced with threatening weather from Hurricane Ian, NASA managers decided Monday to haul the $4.1 billion Artemis 1 rocket off its launch pad and back to the protection of the agency's Vehicle Assembly Building.
With Hurricane Ian bearing down on Florida's west coast, engineers readied the Space Launch System moon rocket for roll back to the protection of the Vehicle Assembly Building Monday to move it out of harm's way with torrential rain, lightning and high winds expected later this week.while engineers began rollback preparations, but a final decision was put off until Monday in hopes the forecast would improve enough to preserve the backup launch opportunity.
The decision was the latest in a series of setbacks for the 330-foot-tall rocket, the most powerful ever built for NASA and the linchpin in the agency's Artemis moon program. The goal of the initial test flight is to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule on a long flight around the moon and then to test its heat shield during a hellish high-speed plunge back into the atmosphere at the end of the mission.
Because of the ever-changing positions of Earth and moon, the rocket can only be launched during specific periods when lighting and a variety of other factors are favorable. The current launch period, No. 26, closes Oct. 4. Launch period 27 runs from Oct. 17–31. But because of the time needed to roll back to the VAB, service batteries in the rocket's self-destruct system and then haul it back out to the pad, re-connect propellant, power, data lines and other systems, NASA almost certainly will be forced to target launch period 28, which runs from Nov. 12 to 27, for the next launch attempt.
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