Definitely! Will Artemis 1 see the Moon one day? The space mission, which should mark the renewal of the lunar conquest, should have been launched in the summer, then at the beginning of September. Each time, technical problems decided otherwise. Finally, Tuesday, September 27 was to be the big day. But again, cancellation.
This time, the fault is not to be found on the side of the tanks or any hydrogen leak. The problem is called Ian, a hurricane that is about to hit Cuba and the Cayman Islands. The latest data from the American monitoring center point to winds currently at more than 120 km / h and “rapid reinforcement in the coming days”. The hurricane would attack Florida from the west coast, below Tampa. But given the width of the peninsula, strong winds and heavy rains cannot be ruled out on the east coast of Florida, where Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center are located.
A return to the hangar which should last about ten hours
Since this weekend, NASA officials have been tearing their hair out over the future of the launch. There was still a small firing window on October 2, but on condition that the rocket be left in place on its launch pad, that is to say to take the risk of the hurricane falling on it. After many hesitations according to the weather reports, the American agency finally decided on Monday, September 26 to return the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft to the garage. The Artemis mission will not take off this week.
In detail, the way back to the hangar will begin Monday evening, American time, which is very early in the morning of Tuesday for the French. It takes about ten hours to move the rocket, and this choice should allow the employees of the space center to also take shelter after the operations.
Although predictable, this decision is nonetheless a disappointment for many engineers and researchers involved in this mission. Especially since the next possibility of launching, at the end of October or the beginning of November, is likely to experience, again, bad weather. Artemis 1 should pave the way for subsequent manned missions, which should put humans on the Moon from 2025.