New Delhi: NASA on Saturday called off the launch of its historic uncrewed mission to the moon that was scheduled on Tuesday due to a tropical storm that is forecast to strengthen as it approaches Florida, news agency AFP reported.
"NASA is forgoing a launch opportunity... and preparing for rollback (from the launchpad), while continuing to watch the weather forecast associated with Tropical Storm Ian," the aeronautic agency said on Saturday.
According to the US National Hurricane Centre, the tropical storm ‘Ian’ is due to "rapidly intensify" over the weekend as it moves toward Florida, home to the Kennedy Space Centre, from which the rocket was scheduled to launch.
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AFP reported that a decision on whether to roll back the giant Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building is due to be taken by the team of Artemis 1 on Sunday.
It is to be noted that the orange and white SLS rocket can withstand wind gusts of up to 137km per hour on the launch pad. But if it has to be sheltered, the current launch window that runs till October 4 will be missed.
Notably, the next launch window will run from October 17 to 31, with one possibility of take-off each day, except from Oct 24-26 and 28.
The Artemis 1 space mission hopes to test the SLS and the unmanned Orion capsule that sits atop, in preparation for future mission to the moon with humans aboard. A successful Artemis 1 mission will come as a huge relief to the US space agency, after years of delays and cost overruns.
However, another setback would be a blow to NASA, after two previous launch attempts were called off when the rocket experienced technical glitches, including a fuel leak.