NASA delays moon rocket launch due to potential hurricane

NASA is skipping adjacent week's motorboat effort of its caller satellite rocket due to the fact that of a tropical tempest that's expected to go a large hurricane.

It's the 3rd hold successful the past period for the lunar-orbiting trial formation featuring mannequins but nary astronauts, a follow-up to NASA's Apollo moon-landing programme of a half-century ago. Hydrogen substance leaks and different method issues caused the erstwhile scrubs.

Currently churning successful the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Ian is expected to go a hurricane by Monday and slam into Florida's Gulf seashore by Thursday. The full state, however, is successful the cone showing the probable way of the storm's halfway — including NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Given the forecast uncertainties, NASA decided Saturday to forgo Tuesday's planned motorboat effort and alternatively hole the 322-foot (98-meter) rocket for a imaginable instrumentality to its hangar. Managers volition determine Sunday whether to haul it disconnected the motorboat pad.

If the rocket remains astatine the pad, NASA could effort for an Oct. 2 motorboat attempt, the past accidental earlier a two-week blackout period. But a rollback precocious Sunday oregon aboriginal Monday apt would mean a lengthy hold for the trial flight, perchance pushing it into November.

The Space Launch System rocket is the astir almighty ever built by NASA. Assuming its archetypal trial formation goes well, astronauts would ascent aboard for the adjacent ngo successful 2024, starring to a two-person satellite landing successful 2025.

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