NASA Pushes Through With Its Artemis I Launch Next Week; Agency Says It's Not Risking Its $4.1-Billion Rocket to the Moon

Managers at NASA met early today and decided based on the most recent weather forecasts associated with Hurricane Ian after additional data collected overnight did not exhibit improving expected conditions for the Kennedy Space Center area.

As specified in an Orlando Sentinel report, with the threat of Hurricane Ian, the American space agency is not going to risk the Artemis I launch, its $4.1 billion rocket to the moon. Hence, NASA decided to roll it back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, forgoing an opportunity to launch the space rocket next week.

The decision gives employees time to address the needs of their families and shield the integrated rocket and spacecraft system.

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Safety Vehicle Assembly Building

The first motion for the four-mile trek back to the VAB is expected to happen at around 11 pm. The time was chosen and considered the best time to adhere to weather constraints when moving the over five million-pound, 322-foot-tall combination of the mobile launcher, Space Launch System rocket, and Orion spacecraft to the Safety Vehicle Assembly Building or VAB, which will travel on the crawler-transporter 2 of NASA.

NASA has already decided to skip an attempt for launch that was scheduled for Tuesday due to the approaching storm although it was monitoring the growth and projected path of Ian, hoping the thread to the Space Coast would be limited.

The rocket can endure 85 mph sustained winds on the launch pad although the danger of tornadoes and hurricane-level gusts are still plausible as of the forecasts this morning.

By deciding to roll back to the VAB, NASA will be able to take care of some recharging activities of the battery, which include the flight termination system and some of the rideshare cubesats for deployment when it travels to the moon.

Next Scheduled Windows for Liftoffs

The next available windows are scheduled to run from October 10 to 31, November 12 to 27, and December 9 to 23, a related Fox Business report said. 

Each window only has some days during which the moon and Earth are in the right position for the planned mission.

Essentially, Artemis I is an uncrewed mission that combines the Space Launch System rocket mobile launcher and Orion spacecraft.

The 8.8 million pounds of thrust of SLS at liftoff would turn out to be the most powerful rocket to ever launch from Earth besting the Apollo missions and the Saturn V rockets.

Succeeding Launches if Artemis I Liftoff Succeeds

The Orion spacecraft will be propelled into the trans-lunar injection during which plans are to have it sent as far as 280,000 miles away, 40,000 miles more distant compared to the moon.

It will make numerous orbits of the moon over many weeks prior to the return to earth quicker than any human-related spacecraft has never tried to re-enter, coming in at 24,500 mph creating heat of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The goal is to guarantee that Orion can endure extremes to keep humans safe on future missions. If the launch succeeds, Artemis II could fly crewed to orbit on the moon in 2024, and Artemis could fly as early as 2025 to return humans which include the first woman to the surface of the moon for the first time since the 1972 Apollo 17.

Information about the Artemis I rocket is shown on KSC's YouTube video below:

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