NASA Artemis I Mega Moon Rocket Returns to Launchpad
Glitches and stormy weather have delayed the Artemis I launch, but NASA hopes this time will be the charm.
Getting back to the moon is tough. NASA plans to send its uncrewed Artemis I mission around the moon and bring it back safely. But first it has to get off this rock, an event NASA hopes will happen Nov. 14. Early on Friday morning, the massive Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule arrived back at the launchpad for the next moon shot.
NASA shared a glamour shot of the rocket's arrival at pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was the end point of a 4-mile (6.5-kilometer) journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building (a honking huge rocket garage) to the place where SLS will blast off. A beast of a vehicle called a crawler-transporter handled the move.
Teams completed some minor refurbishment work -- including the replacement of batteries -- on the rocket system while it was in the Vehicle Assembly Building.
Artemis I has been here before. NASA had hoped to launch in August or September, but technical snafus kept the rocket grounded. Then, Hurricane Ian arrived in late September and NASA moved the rocket back to its garage for safekeeping during the storm.
The next attempt scheduled for Nov. 14 would be a nighttime launch with a 69-minute window opening at 12:07 a.m. ET (9:07 p.m. PT on Nov. 13). While NASA hopes this one will work, there's always the possibility of weather issues or more technical problems that could keep the rocket grounded until a later date.
Artemis I is the first big step in NASA's ambitious plan to get astronauts back on the surface of the moon for the first time since the Apollo era. The mission needs to prove SLS works and Orion is safe to carry humans to our lunar neighbor.