WASHINGTON, DC —
NASA has called off the
scheduled Tuesday launch of its historic uncrewed mission to the Moon due to a
tropical storm that is forecast to strengthen as it approaches Florida.
اضافة اعلان
After two
previously canceled launch attempts, NASA is weighing returning the Artemis 1
mission rocket to its assembly site under the threat of extreme weather.
“NASA is forgoing a
launch opportunity ... and preparing for rollback (from the launch pad), while
continuing to watch the weather forecast associated with Tropical Storm Ian,”
it said on Saturday.
The
US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Ian is due to “rapidly intensify” over the weekend
as it moves toward Florida, home to the Kennedy Space Center, from which the
rocket is set to launch.
Currently south of Jamaica, the storm is expected to
approach Florida’s west coast “at or near major hurricane strength” early next
week, threatening storm surge, flooding and hurricane-force winds across much
of the state, the NHC said.
On the launch pad,
the giant orange and white Space Launch System (SLS) rocket can withstand wind
gusts of up to 137km per hour. But if it has to be sheltered, the current
launch window, which runs until October 4, will be missed.
A decision on
whether to roll back the rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building is due to be
taken by the Artemis 1 team on Sunday, “to allow for additional data gathering
and analysis,” with the operation, if necessary, starting late Sunday or Monday
morning, NASA said.
Jim Free, associate
administrator for the agency’s exploration systems development directorate,
said on Twitter that a “step-wise approach” to the decision to roll back
preserves “a launch opportunity if conditions improve,” indicating a launch
date before October 5 was still on the table.
If not, the next
launch window will run from October 17 to 31, with one possibility of take-off
per day, except from October 24–26 and 28.
The Artemis 1 space
mission hopes to test the SLS as well as the unmanned Orion capsule that sits
atop it, in preparation for future Moon-bound journeys with humans aboard.
Artemis is named
after the twin sister of the Greek god Apollo, after whom the first Moon
missions were named.
Unlike the Apollo
missions, which sent only white men to the Moon between 1969 and 1972, Artemis
missions will see the first person of color and the first woman step foot on
the lunar surface.
A successful
Artemis 1 mission would come as a huge relief to the US space agency, after
years of delays and cost overruns.
But another setback
would be a blow to NASA, after two previous launch attempts were scrapped when
the rocket experienced technical glitches including a fuel leak.
The cost of the
Artemis program is estimated to reach $93 billion by 2025, with its first four
missions clocking in at a whopping $4.1 billion each, according to a government
audit.
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