CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA is now targeting early Wednesday to roll the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft for Artemis II off the launch pad and back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, the agency said on Monday.
The move comes as cold temperatures and high winds are expected Tuesday, limiting work at the pad and prompting teams to shift the schedule to allow enough time for remaining preparations.
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The rollback will cover roughly four miles and could take up to 12 hours. Once the rocket and spacecraft are secured inside the VAB, teams will begin installing platforms to access the area associated with a helium flow issue that requires further work.
In the latest setback to return astronauts to the moon, NASA delayed the highly anticipated flight yet again after a new problem cropped up with the rocket on Saturday.
NASA revealed the latest problem just one day after targeting March 6 for Artemis II, humanity’s first flight to the moon in more than half a century. Overnight, the flow of helium to the rocket’s upper stage was interrupted, officials said. Solid helium flow is essential for purging the engines and pressurizing the fuel tanks.
This helium issue has nothing to do with the hydrogen fuel leaks that marred a countdown dress rehearsal of the Space Launch System rocket earlier this month and forced a repeat test.
April is now the earliest that the four Artemis II astronauts could fly to the moon.
Engineers had just tamed the hydrogen leaks and settled on a March 6 launch date — already a month late — when the helium issue arose. The helium flow to the rocket’s upper stage was disrupted; helium is needed to purge the engines and pressurize the fuel tanks.
“Returning to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy is required to determine the cause of the issue and fix it,” NASA said in a statement.
The three Americans and one Canadian assigned to the Artemis II mission remain on standby in Houston. They will become the first people to fly to the moon since NASA’s Apollo program that sent 24 astronauts there from 1968 through 1972.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.