NASA’s moon rocket needs only minor repairs after enduring a hurricane on the pad and is on track for its first test flight next week, a top official said Friday. “There’s nothing stopping us right now” from trying to launch on Wednesday, said NASA’s Jim Free, associate administrator. Winds never exceeded the rocket’s design limits when Hurricane Nicole tore through the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, the Free reports. But he acknowledged that if the launch team had known in advance that a hurricane would hit, they probably would have kept the rocket inside. The rocket was moved to the pad late last week for its $4.1 billion demo mission.
Gusts reached 100 mph (160 km/h) at the top of the launch tower, but were not nearly as strong lower in the rocket. Computer models suggest there should be no strength or fatigue problems from the storm, even deep inside the rocket, Free noted.
NASA had sought an early Monday launch, but the storm delayed it for two days. The 322-foot-long (98-meter) rocket, known as SLS for Space Launch System, is the most powerful NASA has ever built. A crew capsule atop a rocket with three test dummies on board will blast off to the moon — the first such flight in the 50 years since Apollo astronauts last visited the moon.
NASA wants to test all the systems before sending astronauts on a journey around the moon in 2024. Two previous launch attempts in late summer were thwarted by fuel leaks. Hurricane Ian also forced a return to the hangar in late September. The Associated Press Health and Science Division receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Division of Science Education. All content is the sole responsibility of AP.
