spacetoday.net: NASA slips first SLS launch to late 2021

Posted: Sun, May 17, 2020, 11:10 AM ET (1510 GMT)
Space Launch System (SLS) illustration, Oct 2015 (NASA)

NASA now expects the first launch of the Space Launch System to take place in late 2021. In a presentation at a NASA Advisory Council committee meeting Thursday, the agency said a formal estimate of the Artemis 1 launch date will come next week, but that the agency now expected it to be "towards the end of next year." One reason for the latest slip is the coronavirus pandemic that closed the Stennis Space Center, where the SLS core stage is being prepared for a static-fire test. That "Green Run" test is now expected to take place in the fall, potentially as late as Thanksgiving, as the center gradually starts to reopen.