NASA’s Artemis 1 rocket launch delayed again, probably till November

The long-awaited launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Artemis 1 mission has been postponed to mid-November after NASA abandoned its plans to launch on September 27 due to Hurricane Ian. The space agency has announced that it aims to launch Artemis 1 between November 12 and 27.

Although there was initially a possibility that the next launch attempt could take place in October, it was ultimately canceled as NASA decided to roll the rocket back into the Vertical Assembly Building (VAB) to protect it from the storm.

Category 4 Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, but by the time it reached the Kennedy Space Center, it had weakened and turned into a tropical storm. NASA says there was “no damage to the hardware” for the Artemis 1 mission, and that space center facilities suffered only “minor water intrusion.”

NASA’s Artemis 1 launch is set to send the unmanned Orion capsule on a journey around the Moon, paving the way for future missions that will land the first woman and person of color on the Moon surface.