Artemis mission: storm fears Ian, the rocket returns to the assembly building

The tropical storm Ian forces NASA to move the

(Space Launch System) rocket of the

mission , the first demonstration flight of the program that will bring humans back to the Moon by 2025, from the launch pad. 

At the

, operations to transfer the launcher from ramp 39B to the assembly building (

) began when it was 5:21 am in Italy, and will take a few hours. 

The rocket will have to travel, moved by the platform on which it is fixed, the approximately 7 kilometers that separate the launch pad from the

, where it can be secured.

A break that will allow technicians to be able to work on the rocket more easily and to inspect all the devices involved in the leak of liquid hydrogen detected during loading, both in the launch attempt on September 3 and in the test on September 21.

The decision to return the launcher to the assembly building was made after evaluating weather information acquired by the Atmosphere and Oceans Monitoring Agency (Noaa) and the US Space Force.

The transfer, however, risks causing further delays to the first launch of the vector for the Moon, the date of which remains to be defined.

The passage of the ISS over the tropical storm Ian