Storm `Nicole` pushes `NASA` to delay the launch of the moon rocket for the fourth time

Weather of Arabia - The US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that it will keep its new large rocket heading to the moon on the launch pad to avoid a hurricane that is expected to strike near Cape Canaveral, Florida, and that the target launch date next week has been postponed for two days.

The Kennedy Space Center is located near the middle of a strip of about 386 kilometers on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean in Florida, where meteorologists say that Tropical Storm Nicole is likely to hit Wednesday evening or early Thursday as a category one hurricane.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said that as of Tuesday evening, the maximum speed of the winds accompanying Nicole reached 100 kilometers per hour, and the strength of the storm was increasing as it headed to the northern Bahamas on its way to Florida. The maximum wind speed associated with a category one hurricane is between 119 and 153 kilometers per hour.

More: Hours separate the development of Tropical Storm Nicole into a hurricane that threatens the east coast of Florida

NASA's next-generation rocket, which is 32 stories tall, was installed on the launch pad last week in a third attempt to launch it on its first unmanned round trip to the moon.

The flight, the first in the ambitious new "Artemis" program to explore the moon, was scheduled to launch next Monday (November 14).

As a result of Nicole's approach, NASA postponed the launch by at least two days to Wednesday (November 16), giving the crews extra time to take care of their families and homes before the storm and prepare the rocket for flight afterward.

NASA said it will leave the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule on the launch pad until the storm passes rather than trying to return the spacecraft to its hangar, a process that takes nearly 12 hours and involves additional risks.

If the giant tractor used to transport the rocket to and from its hangar collapses, the spacecraft could become more vulnerable, said Mark Burger, launch meteorologist at the US Space Force station in Cape Canaveral.

The launch of the missile has been postponed for the fourth time this year

NASA made two launches of this rocket, at the end of August and at the beginning of September, but had to cancel them at the last minute due to technical problems.

And the US space agency "NASA" announced the postponement of the launch of the rocket at the end of September, the most powerful rocket ever made by NASA, and it was returned to the assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center in order to protect it from Hurricane "Ian" that devastated parts of Florida.

This is the fourth time that the missile launch has been postponed, and this time due to the weather as well.

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