Oct 12 (Reuters) - NASA has targeted Nov. 14 for a third attempt to launch its big, next-generation rocketship, the U.S. space agency said on Wednesday, after weeks of technical setbacks and foul weather delayed the uncrewed inaugural Artemis mission to the moon.
Plans call for rolling the 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion capsule back out to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as early as Friday, Nov. 4 to renew final flight preparations.
The newly targeted 69-minute launch window for the Artemis I mission on Nov. 14 opens at 12:07 a.m. EST (0407 GMT), with backup launch opportunities of two hours each set for Nov. 16 and Nov. 19, NASA said.
Artemis I, aimed at launching the Orion capsule on an uncrewed test flight to the moon and back, would mark the debut voyage of both the SLS rocket and Orion a half century after the final lunar mission of Apollo, forerunner of the Artemis program.
NASA ultimately plans to establish a long-term lunar base of operations as a stepping stone to even more ambitious human voyages to Mars.