NASA delays first Artemis moonshot with astronauts due to extreme cold at launch site
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — NASA has delayed the astronauts’ next trip to the Moon due to expected near-freezing temperatures at the launch site.
Artemis’ first crewed moonshot is now scheduled for no earlier than February 8, two days later than planned.
NASA was prepared to conduct a refueling test of the 98-meter moon rocket on Saturday, but canceled everything Thursday evening due to the expected cold.
The critical dress rehearsal is now set for Monday, weather permitting. The change leaves NASA with just three days in February to send four astronauts around the Moon and back, before moving on to March.
“Any further delays would result in a day-to-day change,” NASA said in a statement Friday.
Radiators keep the Orion capsule warm at the top of the rocket, officials said, and the rocket’s purge systems are also adapted for the cold.
Commander Reid Wiseman and his crew remain in quarantine in Houston and their arrival at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is uncertain.
NASA only has a few days a month to launch its first lunar crew in more than half a century. Apollo 17 closed this famous Moon exploration program in 1972.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
