The test start of the crisis-plagued "Artemis" moon mission of the US room trip authority NASA is moving further. Because of the approaching hurricane "Ian", NASA rolled the rocket system at the Cape Canaveral space station in the US state of Florida back to the hangar and canceled the start that was actually targeted for Tuesday. In the hangar, some maintenance work should now be carried out, the authority said at a press conference. That is why it is likely that it can only start in November, but possibly already at the end of October.
At the end of August and early September, two attempts to start had to be stopped - once because of a presumably defective temperature sensor and once because of a hydrogen leak that occurred when the rocket was filled. To make matters worse, NASA also announced on Tuesday evening that there was a fire alarm in the Vehicle Assembly Building, in which the rocket is currently parked. Apparently a shut-off rope had started to glow after a spark flight, but there was never danger for the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion capsule of the Artemis I mission.
The SLS and Orion will carry humans to the moon for the first time in the coming years. But even before NASA rolled the rocket system towards the launch pad in August, not everything went smoothly: For example, the construction took much more time than planned and also devoured more money.
At the moment, however, the mission is not the only space project that is affected by Hurricane "Ian": the start of the "crew-5" to the international space station is also delayed due to the storm. The start, which was actually planned for October 3rd, can now take place on October 4 at the earliest, NASA announced on Tuesday. It is also possible as a further alternative date on October 5, the weather will be further observed. (DAM)
