CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – Hurricane Ian is prompting NASA to move a lunar rocket off the launch pad and into a shelter, adding weeks of delay to a test flight to lunar orbit.
Mission managers decided Monday to return the rocket to the Kennedy Space Center hangar. The four-mile journey will begin late Monday night and could take up to 12 hours.
The space center remained on the fringes of the hurricane’s cone of uncertainty. With the latest forecast showing no improvement, managers decided to play it safe. NASA had already delayed this week’s planned launch attempt because of the approaching storm.
NASA isn’t speculating when the next launch attempt might be, but it could be as late as November. Managers will evaluate their options once the 322-foot-long (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket is safely back in the hangar.
A pair 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 from the Apollo moonshines of the 1960s and 1970s. No one will be inside the crew capsule for the first launch. Astronauts will join the second mission in 2024, leading to a two-man moon landing in 2025.
Meanwhile, NASA and SpaceX are still targeting an Oct. 3 crewed launch from the US, Russia and Japan to the International Space Station. However, managers acknowledged that the flight could be delayed as Kennedy prepares for the hurricane and its aftermath.
