There are good and bad news for NASA fans.
NASA's Space Launch System could make its debut as soon as Tuesday after a nail-biting test of a leaking fuel system. The bad news is that there is a depression. There is a developing storm in the Caribbean with the potential to become a major Hurricane and it is currently headed towards Florida.
According to a Friday forecast from the Space Force's 45th weather squadron, there is only a 20% chance that the weather on September 27th will cooperate.
This particular launch will be the beginning of Artemis I, a test mission that will see the first launch of NASA's SLS rocket and that will send an uncrewed capsule out around the moon. The first step in NASA's plan to send astronauts to the moon is the mission.
It needs to get off the ground. Engineers ran a fueling dress rehearsal this week to get through the process of loading the rocket with super-cooled fuel. On either September 27th or October 2nd, it was given the go-ahead to launch by the Space Force. NASA needed the Space Force to sign off on the safety feature. NASA has been granted an extension on the certification of the FTS after it was only certified for 20 days.
The weather is one of the biggest obstacles. The rocket will be rolled back into the Vehicle Assembly Building if NASA decides to go ahead with Tuesday's launch. It could take several days to prepare the rocket and roll it back into the building, so the launch could be delayed until November.
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