NASA Resets Historic Artemis I Launch For Saturday, But Weather Casts Doubts On Plan

After engine issues forced NASA Monday to scrub the long-awaited test voyage of its Space Launch System (SLS) on the Artemis I mission, the space agency has now set this Saturday, September 3 for a make-up date.

However, weather forecasters from the US Space Force who work with missions leaving Florida’s Cape Canaveral warn there is only a 40 percent chance conditions will allow the launch to take place, according to data available Tuesday.

NASA launch managers made the announcement during a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

SLS was originally supposed to launch with an uncrewed Orion capsule Monday morning from the Kennedy Space Center. An issue with an “engine bleed” led mission engineers to call a scrub just after 8:30 a.m. ET.

The massive rocket is the space agency’s biggest and most powerful ever, providing more thrust than even the Saturn V system that carried Apollo astronauts to the moon. The Artemis I mission is meant to mark the debut of the new NASA program aiming to return astronauts to the surface of the moon to set up a permanent presence and set the stage for missions to Mars in the 2030s.

Artemis I will send the empty crew capsule on a more-than-month long journey around the far side of the moon, farther than any human-rated craft has ever traveled, before coming back for a splashdown on Earth.

It is the only test mission NASA is planning for SLS before putting astronauts atop the vehicle in 2024 for Artemis II.

The next launch availability for Artemis I that would produce the desirable alignment of worlds is actually Friday, but NASA is opting instead to target the two-hour launch window that starts at 2:17 p.m. ET Saturday.

If Saturday doesn’t work out, the next available launch window is on Monday.

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