Artemis 1 rocket is ‘shelved’ as Hurricane Ian heads towards Florida

NASA put the massive Artemis 1 megamoon rocket back in its hangar, called the Vehicle Assembly Building, at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to protect it from Hurricane Ian.

The hurricane hit western Cuba on Tuesday (27). The Category 3 storm is heading towards Florida.

The move, which was completed at 10:15 am ET on Tuesday, delays the third launch attempt of the Artemis 1 mission, which is expected to send an unmanned capsule around the Moon, by at least a few weeks.

The setback would likely push NASA’s next attempt into November, though late October could still be an option for the highly anticipated launch.

“We know the earliest possible is in late October, but we’ll probably get into the window in mid-November,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told reporters. CNN .

“Managers decided to reverse based on the latest weather forecasts associated with Hurricane Ian, not showing expected better conditions for the Kennedy area. The decision allows time for employees to meet the needs of their families and protect the integrated rocket and spacecraft system,” NASA noted on its Artemis blog.

The rocket, called the Space Launch System or SLS, made the slow 6.4-kilometer walk back to the maintenance building starting at 00:21 (Brasilia time) on Monday (26).

On Tuesday morning, the Vehicle Assembly Building, the imposing structure that houses the rocket, was evacuated, according to NASA.

“At approximately 00:45 today, a fire was reported in the Vehicle Assembly Building. Staff have been evacuated and there are no reports of injuries. The VAB is fireproof and the Artemis 1 vehicle was not at risk. We will provide updates as we have them,” according to a tweet from the Kennedy Space Center.

The agency will host a press conference today at 3pm to discuss the reversal decision. Janet Petro, director of the Kennedy Space Center, will provide an overview of all the hurricane preparations taking place at the complex.

“After the storm passes, teams will conduct inspections to determine impacts at the center and establish a plan for the next launch attempt, including replacing the main stage flight termination system batteries and retesting the system to ensure it can terminate the flight if necessary. for public safety in case of an emergency during launch,” according to an update on Artemis’ blog.

The overall goal of NASA’s Artemis program is to return humans to the Moon for the first time in half a century. And the Artemis 1 mission — which should be the first of many — will lay the initial groundwork, testing the rocket and spacecraft and all of its subsystems to ensure it’s safe enough for astronauts to fly.

But getting this first mission off the ground proved to be a difficult endeavor. The agency had already decided over the weekend to delay the third launch attempt, which was scheduled for Tuesday, September 27, due to weather concerns. The question on Monday morning was whether the mission team would need to roll the rocket back into the shelter as Hurricane Ian headed toward Florida.

With that decision made, NASA focused on getting the roughly $4 billion SLS rocket back to the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building, a massive structure large enough to house the vehicle while it stands upright. The rocket made the journey slowly, riding on top of a moving platform called Crawler-Transporter 2.

Technical issues thwarted the first two attempts to get the SLS rocket off the ground for the Artemis 1 mission. The main challenge was a series of leaks that arose when crews tried to fill the rocket with supercooled liquid hydrogen fuel.

The mission team worked to address these issues and ran a test run last week. While the tests didn’t go exactly as planned, NASA called it a success, saying it “fulfilled all of our key objectives.”