KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — NASA's Jim Free confirmed during an afternoon teleconference on Friday that the scheduled Nov. 16 Artemis I launch is still a go, despite the rocket receiving some minor damage from Hurricane Nicole. 

“Right now, there’s nothing preventing us from getting to the 16th," he said of the uncrewed Artemis I mission.

During the 3 p.m. EST teleconference with reporters, Free said that NASA officials had meetings last week about rolling the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft back to Launch Pad 39B before Nicole was even formed, saying that at that time the wind speeds were supposed to be much lower.  

Once the 322-foot rocket and its spacecraft were on the launch pad on, Nov. 4, they had meetings about the pros and cons of rolling them back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) as they monitored the storm system, Free said, who is the NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development.

“We had predictions then that the storm’s winds were going to be high, but still within our certification limits,” he explained of the more than two-hour meeting NASA had about rolling back Artemis in the VAB.

During the storm on Thursday, the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft were on Launch Pad 39B.

Before the storm, NASA stated that the rocket is designed to withstand 85 mph winds at the 60-foot level structural margin.

However, during the storm, officials at the National Weather Service recorded wind gusts of 100 mph at Launch Pad 39B, with other wind gusts documented at 89 mph and 93 mph.

However on Friday, Free said that monitors are set on the launch pad at different heights to measure the wind speed and he confirmed that “we stayed within our certification at the winds that we saw during the hurricane.”

He said ideally, it would have been better to have the rocket and spacecraft in the Vehicle Assembly Building, but that was not an option.

“We could not make it back to the VAB and be safe,” he said.

On Thursday afternoon after Nicole was away from the launch pad, Free tweeted out a statement that echoed much of what he said in the teleconference.

He did admit damage was detected on the vehicle and that engineers would inspect the $4.1 billion Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.

Some room temperature vulcanizing (a sealant or caulk that he mentioned in his tweet) was loose on the Orion and there has been discussion of just snipping it off and determining the risk iof not replacing it, Free said.

An umbilical to the Orion came off its tray, but a team of people, including a veteran, moved it back to where it needed to be, Free said, adding that water got into the crew access arm and it will be dealt with.

In addition to a tear in the engine rain covers that will be fixed, Free said workers realized that one of the electrical umbilicals on the hydrogen tail service mass unit is having issues.

“We do have an issue on the ground side of one of the electrical umbilicals on the hydrogen tail service mass unit that was exhibiting some erratic signals," he said. "The team is out at the pad, taking out that apart and doing some visual inspection, figuring out what the issue is there and what we might need to do in terms of replacing that hardness. We do have a backup harness. It looks like we’d be able to use if it needs to be replaced."

Despite the minor damage, Free said the vehicle is in pretty good condition and engineers will begin to power it up on Friday in preparation for next week's launch.

It was because of Nicole that NASA was forced to push the fourth launch attempt date from Nov. 14 to Nov. 16. But Free said that if backups are needed, they still have Nov. 19 and 25.

Getting off the ground

There have been four launch attempts for the Artemis 1 mission: Two delayed due to liquid hydrogen leaks and two due to hurricanes.

A liquid hydrogen leak and engine temperature issues during the first launch attempt on Aug. 29, forced engineers to shelve the liftoff.

Once those issues were fixed, a completely different liquid hydrogen leak was found during the second attempt on Sept. 3.

NASA engineers replaced two seals and later did a cryogenic demonstration test to see if the replacements to the fuel lines that go from the mobile launcher to the rocket worked.

Yet again, a liquid hydrogen leak was revealed, but NASA called the test a success since all the objectives for it were met and engineers were able to handle the leak and fill up the liquid hydrogen side of the rocket.

For the third attempt — scheduled for Sept. 27 — Hurricane Ian forced NASA to roll both the rocket and the spacecraft from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Ian struck the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 29.

NASA was all set to launch the Artemis pair on Nov. 14, but this time Hurricane Nicole forced officials to push it back to Nov. 16.

Even though the Artemis rocket has not yet launched and has dealt with a number of liquid hydrogen leaks, TIME Magazine listed the biggest rocket ever as one of the best inventions of 2022.

About the mission

The Artemis program is composed of a total of three missions: Artemis I, Artemis II and Artemis III.

Artemis I is an uncrewed test flight that is designed to provide NASA with information that will be utilized for the two later missions. Currently, Artemis II, which will carry astronauts in orbit around the moon, is scheduled for 2024. 

Artemis III, which will carry humans back to the moon's surface for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, is set for 2025.