With Hurricane Ian looming, NASA isn’t going to risk its $4.1 billion rocket to the moon by deciding to take it back to Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building, forgoing a chance to launch Artemis I next week.
“Officials met Monday morning and made the decision based on the latest weather forecast associated with Hurricane Ian, after additional data collected overnight showed no improvement in expected conditions for the area. Kennedy Space Center,” read a post on NASA’s website on Monday. “The decision allows time for employees to meet the needs of their families and protect the integrated rocket and spacecraft system.”
The first move for the 4-mile hike to the VAB will be around 11 p.m., the post says. The timing was chosen as the best time to meet weather constraints when moving the 5.75 million-pound, 322-foot-tall combination of Space Launch System, mobile launcher and Orion spacecraft to safety. of the Vehicle Assembly Building, which will travel on NASA’s Crawler Transporter 2.
NASA had already decided to skip a launch attempt scheduled for Tuesday due to the approaching storm, but was monitoring Ian’s growth and projected trajectory hoping the threat to the Space Coast would be limited.
The rocket can withstand sustained winds of 85 mph on the launch pad, but the threat of tornadoes and hurricane-level gusts is still possible according to Monday morning forecasts.
By choosing to return to the VAB, NASA will be able to support some battery recharging activities, including the flight termination system as well as some of the rideshare cubesats that will be deployed when it heads to the moon.
The next available launch windows will be October 17-31, November 12-27, and December 9-23. Each window has only certain days when the Earth and Moon are in the correct position for the intended mission.
Artemis I is an uncrewed mission that combines the mobile launcher, the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft. The SLS’s 8.8 million pounds of liftoff thrust would become the most powerful rocket ever launched from Earth, surpassing the Saturn V rockets of the Apollo missions.
The Orion spacecraft will be propelled into a trans-lunar injection during which it is expected to send it up to 280,000 miles away, 40,000 miles further than the moon. It will perform multiple orbits around the moon for several weeks before returning to Earth faster than any human-rated spacecraft has ever attempted re-entry, arriving at 24,500 mph creating 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit heat.
The goal is to ensure that Orion can withstand extremes to keep humans safe on future missions. If successful, Artemis II could fly with a crew to orbit the moon in 2024 and Artemis III could fly as early as 2025 to bring humans, including the first woman, back to the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Follow Orlando Sentinel space coverage on Facebook.com/goforlaunchsentinel.
