Artemis launch before November will be 'difficult': says NASA

It will be "difficult" for NASA to make a new attempt to launch its massive Moon rocket in October, an official from the US space agency said Tuesday, with a lift-off in November looking more likely.

In order to protect it from Hurricane Ian's approach, NASA's most potent rocket, the SLS, had to be brought back to its storage hangar for the night.

The next possible launch windows -- determined according to the positions of the Earth and the Moon -- are from October 17 to 31, then from November 12 to 27.

"We know that the earliest it could go is late October, but more than likely we'll go in the window in the middle of November," NASA administrator Bill Nelson told CNN.

Technical issues, such as a leak during fueling the rocket, had previously caused the cancellation of two launch attempts, one at the end of August and the other at the start of September.

Artemis 1 will be used to check that the Orion capsule, at the top of the rocket, is secure for bringing a crew to the Moon in the future, fifty years after the final Apollo mission.