The takeoff of the new mega rocket SLS (Space Launch System), already aborted twice, will take place on September 27 at the earliest.
This is what NASA said on Monday.
This long-awaited test flight of the Artemis 1 mission must test the SLS rocket and the Orion capsule at its summit in real conditions, where the astronauts will take place in the future.
To get the green light for takeoff, NASA teams must successfully complete a fuel tank filling test.
Another shooting window on October 2
The US space agency must also obtain a special waiver to avoid retesting the batteries on an emergency rocket destruction system.
If the agency does not receive this waiver, the rocket will have to return to the assembly building, which would push the schedule back several weeks.
The September 27 firing window will open at 11:37 a.m. (local time) for 70 minutes, with a scheduled end of mission on November 5.
A possible second window is scheduled for October 2, NASA said.
At the beginning of September, the space agency said it hoped to be able to launch its mega rocket on September 23 or 27.
A major project constantly postponed
The historic takeoff was canceled on August 29 and then again on September 3 due to technical issues.
The orange and white SLS rocket, which has never flown before, has been in development for more than a decade.
Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, Artemis 1 should make it possible to verify that the Orion capsule is safe to transport astronauts to the Moon.
For this first mission, Orion will venture up to 64,000 km behind the Moon, further than any other habitable spacecraft so far.
The main objective is to test its heat shield, the largest ever built.
On its return to the Earth's atmosphere, it will have to withstand a speed of 40,000 km/h and a temperature half as hot as that of the surface of the Sun.
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