NASA will discuss its hurricane safety plan for the Artemis 1 moon rocket today (Sept. 27), and you can listen live.
The agency will hold a media briefing today following the approximately 10-hour rollback of the Artemis 1 mission's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket from the launch pad to Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in coastal Florida. The rollback began around 11:20 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 26 (0320 GMT Tuesday), and Artemis 1 entered the VAB just before 9:20 a.m. EDT (1320 GMT) today.
Live coverage of the press conference will be available here at Space.com, via NASA Television, starting around 2 p.m EDT (1800 GMT).
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Artemis 1 was supposed to launch toward the moon today, following several delays for technical or weather reasons. But Hurricane Ian scuttled that plan, and NASA ultimately decided to roll the Artemis 1 stack to the VAB to ride out the storm. A new launch date hasn't yet been announced.
Participants in today's briefing include:
- Janet Petro, center director, Kennedy Space Center
- Jim Free, associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters
"NASA used the latest information provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Space Force, and the National Hurricane Center to guide its decision making. As center director, Petro will provide big picture hurricane preparations underway at Kennedy," agency officials wrote of the briefing.
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Artemis 1 has now rolled back to the VAB three times. The mission also rolled off the pad in late April and early July, after fueling tests that were complicated by several technical issues.
NASA then rolled the rocket out to the launch pad on Aug. 16 and successfully completed another fueling test last week, although several launch opportunities had to be missed due to more issues with the rocket or with weather.
Artemis 1 will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to the moon for about 40 days, depending on the launch date, and test key systems ahead of the crewed Artemis 2 moon mission, which is expected to launch in 2024.
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