“Tropical Depression Number Nine” has yet to be named, and is currently located below the Dominican Republic. But it should turn into a hurricane in the coming days, and go up via the Gulf of Mexico to Florida, where the Kennedy Space Center is located from where the rocket is to take off.
“Our plan A is to stay the course and do a liftoff on Sept. 27,” Kennedy Center official Mike Bolger said Friday.
“But if we have to go to plan B, we need a few days to pivot from our current configuration (…) and bring the rocket back under the protection of its assembly building,” he added.
NASA closely monitors each weather report.
“We will probably make a decision no later than tomorrow morning (Saturday morning, editor’s note), or early afternoon,” Bolger said.
The orange and white SLS rocket can withstand, on its launch pad, gusts of maximum 137 km/h.
If it has to be sheltered, the current firing period, which extends until October 4, will be missed. The next period runs from October 17 to 31, with one possibility of take-off per day (except from October 24 to 26 and 28).
This setback would be a blow for NASA, which has just overcome two other problems, with a takeoff canceled at the last moment due to a leak of liquid hydrogen when filling the tanks with this fuel. A damaged seal has since been replaced, and NASA passed a ground test this week to verify the repairs.