JOE RAEDLE / Getty Images via AFP
At Cape Canaveral, here in early September 2022, the Artemis mission is still awaiting launch.
SPACE – When it doesn’t want, it doesn’t want. After several cancellations at the end of August and the beginning of September, the takeoff of the new mega-rocket from NASA for the moon will not take place this Tuesday, September 27. La mission test Artemis I is postponed due to the formation of a storm, the space agency announced on Saturday September 24.
Under the threat of storm Ian, currently south of Jamaica, NASA must prepare the rocket to return it to its assembly building. The storm is expected to strengthen into a hurricane in the coming days and rise via the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida, where the Kennedy Space Center is located from where the rocket is to take off.
Artemis I update: @NASA is foregoing a launch opportunity Tuesday, Sept. 27, and preparing for rollback, while cont… https://t.co/vnysvCUk9q
— NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy)
“Saturday morning, the teams decided to forego preparing for the takeoff date on Tuesday, in order to allow them to configure the systems to transport the rocket (…) in the assembly building”, NASA wrote in a blog post. The final decision to retract the rocket will however be taken on Sunday, “to enable more data and analysis to be gathered” as the weather forecast improves. If it takes place, the operation would then begin “late Sunday or early Monday morning”. The current firing period, which runs until October 4, would then be missed.
If it is finally decided that the rocket can remain on its launch pad, NASA did not specify whether the fallback date previously announced, October 2, could still be considered for takeoff. The orange and white SLS rocket, 98 meters high, can withstand wind gusts of up to 137 km/h on its launch pad. And for the complex maneuver of transporting the rocket to its assembly building, the speed of the sustained winds must not exceed 75 km/h.
After already two failed launch attempts a few weeks ago due to technical problems, this new setback is unwelcome for NASA. The Artemis test mission, without crew on board, should mark the beginning of the great American space program back on the Moon, with the aim of establishing a lasting presence there, then allowing it to be used as a springboard towards Mars.
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