KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — In the midnight hour next month, the skies around the Kennedy Space Center will light up.
After inspections and repairs of the Space Launch System rocket, NASA said it is targeting the next launch attempt of the Artemis I mission for Nov. 14.
The space agency said it has a 69-minute launch window that opens at 12:07 a.m. EST Nov. 14 for the SLS rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft. Artemis I is an uncrewed flight test to launch SLS and send Orion around the moon and back to Earth to thoroughly test its system before flights with astronauts.
Inspections and analyses over the previous week have confirmed minimal work is required to prepare the rocket and spacecraft to roll out to Launch Pad 39B, following the roll-back due to Hurricane Ian, NASA said.
Teams will perform standard maintenance to repair minor damage to the foam and cork on the thermal protection system and recharge or replace batteries on the rocket, several secondary payloads, and the flight termination system. The agency plans to roll the rocket back to the launch pad as early as Nov. 4.
NASA has requested back-up launch opportunities for 1:04 a.m. Nov. 16 and 1:45 a.m. Nov. 19 – both two-hour launch windows. A Nov. 14 launch would result in a mission duration of about 25-and-a-half days with a splashdown Dec. 9 in the Pacific Ocean.
