The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on Friday that it would attempt to launch its Moon mega-rocket in November. The American space agency didn’t provide a specific date for the much-delayed Artemis 1 mission.
The US space agency revealed it was preparing its next launch window for between November 12 and November 27 after being forced to delay its most recent liftoff attempt owing to the powerful Hurricane Ian that pounded Florida this week.
In a blog post, NASA said that in the coming days, the team will assess conditions and necessary work and “identify a specific date for the next launch attempt”.
This is NASA’s first mission to the moon in 50 years. NASA’s Artemis I will be the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to build a long-term human presence on the Moon in the coming decades.
The mission has been marred by delays and NASA has already made two attempts to launch the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission, in late August and early September, but both had to be scrapped at the last minute due to technical problems.
NASA also revealed that the teams at Kennedy Space Center in Florida conducted initial inspections on Friday to assess potential impacts from Hurricane Ian.
There was no damage to Artemis flight hardware, and facilities are in good shape with only minor water intrusion identified in a few locations.-(WION)