Small fire breaks out at Artemis 1 moon rocket's hurricane shelter

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The Artemis 1 vehicle was never at risk, NASA officials said.

NASA's Artemis 1 moon rocket nears Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building on Sept. 27, 2022 after rolling off Launch Pad 39B to ride out Hurricane Ian.
NASA's Artemis 1 moon rocket nears Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building on Sept. 27, 2022 after rolling off Launch Pad 39B to ride out Hurricane Ian. (Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)

NASA's Artemis 1 moon rocket left its launch pad for safety's sake last night (Sept. 26), only to encounter a bit of drama shortly after arriving at its designated shelter site.

Mission team members rolled the Artemis 1 stack from Kennedy Space Center's (KSC) Launch Pad 39B to the facility's huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to protect the valuable hardware from Hurricane Ian, should the storm end up hammering Florida's Space Coast.

Artemis 1 completed the nearly 10-hour trip to the VAB at about 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT) today (Sept. 27). But just 2.5 hours later, a small fire broke out inside the building. "Employees were evacuated, and there are no reported injuries. The VAB is fire safe, and the Artemis 1 vehicle was not at risk," KSC officials said via Twitter today.

Related: NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission: Live updates
More: 10 wild facts about the Artemis 1 moon mission

KSC Director Janet Petro provided a few more details during a previously planned news conference this afternoon. 

"I'm told it was a 40-volt electrical panel on the wall of the High Bay 3 that caught fire," she said. The cause is unclear and under investigation, she added, stressing that the flames never got close to Artemis 1.

Artemis 1 will use a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to launch an uncrewed Orion capsule to the moon. NASA had hoped to launch the mission today, but the threat of Hurricane Ian spoiled that plan. 

The mission team will perform some work on the Artemis 1 stack while it's riding out the storm in the VAB. It's too soon to speculate about a new target launch date, although a liftoff before November looks unlikely at this point.

Related stories:

— NASA's Artemis program of lunar exploration 

— Artemis 1: Going back to the moon 

— NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission explained in photos 

"I won't write it off, but it is going to be difficult," Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said during today's briefing, referring to an October launch.

Artemis 1 will be the first launch of the SLS and the first mission of NASA's Artemis program. If all goes well, Artemis 2 will send astronauts around the moon in 2024 and Artemis 3 will put boots on the ground near the lunar south pole a year or so later.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or on Facebook.  

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.