NASA again delays Artemis moon mission due to weather conditions
NASA again rescheduled its long-delayed uncrewed mission to the Moon on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Nicole churned toward the east coast of Florida, officials said. A launch attempt, which had been scheduled for November 14, will now take place on November 16, Jim Free, a senior official at the U.S. space agency, said on Twitter.
In this file photo taken on September 27, 2022 the Artemis I unmanned lunar rocket is rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as Florida braces for Hurricane Ian. (AFP)
U.S. space agency NASA on Tuesday said it would again delay a launch attempt for the Artemis moon mission due to weather conditions.
NASA cited an approaching tropical storm heading for the U.S. state of Florida, where the Cape Canaveral spaceport is located, as the reason for the new target of November 16.
"NASA is continuing to monitor Tropical Storm Nicole and has decided to re-target a launch for the Artemis I mission for Wednesday, Nov. 16, pending safe conditions for employees to return to work, as well as inspections after the storm has passed," the space agency said in a statement.
NASA added that a "back-up launch opportunity" would be on November 19 and that it would work on further back up windows. The launch attempt was initially set for November 14.
Fuel leaks have kept the unmanned rocket grounded over the past few months.
The Artemis mission aims to return U.S. astronauts to the moon, though due to problems identified during earlier tests, the mission's original timeline has been delayed, and NASA does not expect to do so until 2025 at the earliest.
In the long term, the Artemis flights are intended to pave the way for NASA to send manned missions to Mars.
