NASA said Sunday it is targeting Tuesday for the slow move of its Artemis II moon rocket from its current location back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, with weather determining whether the four-mile (6.4-kilometer) trip happens as scheduled. The agency framed the rollback as necessary work before astronauts can strap in for the crewed mission that NASA has described as its first trip to the moon since the Apollo era sent astronauts there from 1968 through 1972.
NASA said the latest step follows a sequence of recent checks and setbacks. It had just finished a repeat fueling test Thursday designed to ensure that dangerous hydrogen fuel leaks were plugged, but another issue emerged soon after that work.
In this round, NASA said the rocket’s helium system malfunctioned. The helium issue disrupted helium flow to the rocket’s upper stage, and NASA said helium is needed to purge the engines and pressurize the fuel tanks.
NASA said in a statement that returning the vehicle to the Vehicle Assembly Building was required “to determine the cause of the issue and fix it.” The agency also said preparations for the rollback are intended to preserve an April launch attempt, while stressing that any launch schedule will depend on what engineers find and how quickly repairs progress.
NASA has only a handful of days each month to launch the Artemis II crew around the moon and back, according to the report. NASA had earlier settled on a March 6 launch date, already a month late, after engineers said they had tamed the earlier hydrogen leaks—until the helium problem surfaced and further pushed back the crewed flight timing.
The Artemis II mission involves three Americans and one Canadian assigned to fly around the moon, and they remain on standby in Houston as the rocket is serviced. The crew will become the first people to fly to the moon since Apollo, NASA said, marking a milestone that is now tied to repairs and to whether the agency can meet its limited monthly launch opportunities in April.