Hurricane Ian is prompting NASA to maneuver its moon rocket off the launch pad and into shelter, including weeks of delay to the lunar-orbiting check flight.
Mission managers determined Monday to return the rocket to its Kennedy Area Middle hangar. The four-mile journey will start late Monday evening and will take so long as 12 hours.
The space middle remained on the fringes of the hurricane’s cone of uncertainty. With the most recent forecast displaying no enchancment, managers determined to play it protected. NASA already had delayed this week’s deliberate launch try due to the approaching storm.
NASA is not speculating when the subsequent launch try is likely to be, however it could possibly be off till November. Managers will assess their choices as soon as the 322-foot (98-meter) Area Launch System rocket is safely again within the hangar.
A pair of launch makes an attempt had been thwarted by hydrogen gasoline leaks and different technical bother.
The $4.1 billion check flight will kick off NASA’s return to the moon for the reason that Apollo moonshots of the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies. Nobody might be contained in the crew capsule for the debut launch. Astronauts will strap in for the second mission in 2024, resulting in a two-person moon touchdown in 2025.
© 2022 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
Quotation:
Hurricane forces NASA moon rocket to shelter; launch on maintain (2022, September 26)
retrieved 26 September 2022
from https://phys.org/information/2022-09-hurricane-nasa-moon-rocket.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Other than any truthful dealing for the aim of personal research or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is supplied for data functions solely.
