Washington

In a new setback, NASA's Artemis 1 rocket had been rolled back into storage due to a potential hurricane in Florida where the US space agency's launchpad is located.

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Despite being scheduled to launch last month, the blast-off for the uncrewed Moon mission has already been pushed back three times.

NASA official Jim Free tweeted "After reviewing the forecast for Ian, we will roll our Artemis I vehicle back to the Vehicle Assembly Building tonight."

"It was the right and necessary decision to keep our people and hardware safe," he added.

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Additional overnight data gathered by NASA showed Hurricane Ian can prove dangerous to the rocket due to the strong winds and heavy rain forecasts.

It is expected to strengthen as it heads toward Florida through the Gulf of Mexico although right now it is a Category 1 hurricane southwest of Cuba.

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NASA will move the 98-meter (320-foot) rocket around 11:00 pm (0300 GMT) on Monday night and it will be ferried along on a rolling platform moving slowly to avoid damaging the rocket with vibrations.

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In the hope of being able to schedule a take-off attempt just after the storm passed, NASA waited until the last minute to decide whether to shelter Artemis I.

According to the space agency, there will now be no opportunity for blast-off within the current launch window.

NASA will have two windows from October 17 to 31 and November 12 to 27 to attempt the launch of the rocket.

After previous launch attempts were cancelled due to the hurricane and a fuel leak, the storage decision represents only the latest setback for Artemis 1.

With Artemis 1 set to show the Orion capsule, the latest Moon mission comes 50 years after the final flight of the Apollo programme.

(With inputs from agencies)

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