ORLANDO, Fla. — With the threat of Hurricane Ian, NASA isn’t going to risk its $4.1 billion rocket to the moon deciding to roll it back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center forgoing a chance to launch Artemis I next week.
“Managers met Monday morning and made the decision based on the latest weather predictions associated with Hurricane Ian, after additional data gathered overnight did not show improving expected conditions for the Kennedy Space Center area,” reads a post to NASA’s website Monday. “The decision allows time for employees to address the needs of their families and protect the integrated rocket and spacecraft system.”
The first motion for the 4-mile trek back to the VAB will take place around 11 p.m., the post reads. The time was chosen as the best time to adhere to weather constraints when moving the 5.75 million-pound, 322-foot-tall combination of Space Launch System rocket, mobile launcher and Orion spacecraft to the safety of the Vehicle Assembly Building, which will travel on NASA’s crawler-transporter 2.
