Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press Posted on Monday, September 26, 2022 at 5:58 pm EDT
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – Hurricane Ian is prompting NASA to move its lunar rocket off the launch pad and into shelter, adding weeks of delay to the lunar orbit test flight.
Mission managers decided Monday to return the rocket to its hangar at the Kennedy Space Center. The four-mile journey will begin Monday night and could take up to 12 hours.
The space center remained on the fringes of the hurricane’s cone of uncertainty. Since the latest forecast showed no improvement, the managers decided to play it safe. NASA had already delayed the launch attempt planned for this week because of the approach of the storm.
NASA isn’t speculating when the next launch attempt might be, but it could be down until November. Administrators will evaluate their options once the 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket is safely back in the hangar.
A couple of launch attempts were thwarted by hydrogen fuel leaks and other technical problems.
The $4.1 billion test flight will begin NASA’s return to the Moon since the Apollo moon shots of the 1960s and 1970s. No one will be inside the crew capsule for the debut launch. Astronauts will join for the second mission in 2024, leading to a two-person lunar landing in 2025.
Meanwhile, NASA and SpaceX are still aiming for an Oct. 3 launch of a crew from the US, Russia and Japan to the International Space Station. But executives acknowledged that the flight could be delayed while Kennedy prepares for the hurricane and its aftermath.