The move will keep Artemis 1 safe from Hurricane Ian, should the storm slam Florida's Atlantic coast.
This isn't Artemis 1's first rollback; the vehicle also departed Pad 39B for the VAB in April and July of this year after conducting fueling tests. The SLS and Orion made it back to the pad in mid-August ahead of a liftoff attempt on Aug. 29.scuttled a subsequent launch attempt on Sept. 3. The Artemis 1 team fixed the leak and started preparing for another planned try on Tuesday , but then Hurricane Ian intervened.
It's unclear at this point if Ian is indeed going to hammer Florida's Atlantic coast; the most recent models have the storm taking particular aim at the Sunshine State's Gulf side. But NASA decided early Monday morning to play it safe andArtemis 1 team members have said they'll likely perform some maintenance work once they get to the VAB, includingfor the mission's flight termination system , which is designed to destroy the SLS if it veers off course during launch.