NASA's plan to return astronauts to the moon and bolster a rapidly growing commercial space industry is facing an infrastructure obstacle.

A new report from NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) warns that launch facilities at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia are approaching capacity as demand accelerates across the agency and the private sector. Support infrastructure — such as roads, electricity, and gas and fuel pipelines that laid the foundation for KSC's network of launch pads built to support the Apollo program in the 1960s — are being increasingly stretched by the demands of NASA's Artemis missions, SpaceX, Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance (ULA) and other users.

"Based on current launch projections, Kennedy and Wallops are expected to operate near capacity in the 2028 to 2029 time frame," states the report, which was released on Monday (June 22). Though it credits NASA for already taking steps to address these issues, agency officials estimate it will take at least $1 billion to complete all the necessary upgrades, of which only $250 million was provided as part of NASA's funds allocated in last year's 2025 H.R.1 reconciliation bill.

On Florida's Space Coast, the assessment encompasses launch facilities at KSC as well as Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), which saw an increase of NASA-supported launches from 31 in 2020 to 109 in 2025, according to the report. Wallops, where there are fewer and smaller launch pads, doesn't traditionally see as many missions compared to KSC. But the Virginia site has experienced an even sharper jump, percentage-wise, over the same timeframe — from three launches in 2020 to 17 in 2025 (a 467% rise). By 2030, NASA expects traffic at both sites to increase by another 150% or so. And NASA officials told auditors that raw launch counts don't fully capture the strain on infrastructure, because launch campaigns require days or weeks of support activity before liftoff.

The report outlines launch infrastructure shortcomings at both facilities, but notes that Wallops' challenges have been partially mitigated by recent upgrades across its seven active launch sites. Wallops generally hosts small and medium-lift launch vehicles, like Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket and Rocket Lab's Electron, but has taken steps to support Rocket Lab's upcoming Neutron, as well as Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket, which is expected to launch from the site sometime this year.

The major launch pads in question at KSC and CCSFS include Launch Complex-39A (LC-39A) and LC-39B, used by SpaceX and NASA, respectively; Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40), also used by SpaceX; SLC-41, used by ULA's Atlas and Vulcan rockets; and SLC-36, used by Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket.

SpaceX has transitioned to launching its Falcon 9 rocket primarily from SLC-40 and has reserved LC-39A for Falcon Heavy launches while construction of the first Florida launch tower for its Starship rocket is underway at the same pad. SpaceX hopes to start launching Starship from this pad before the end of 2026.

The company also has plans for a second Space Coast pad for Starship, at SLC-37. Once Starship, which is still under development at SpaceX's Starbase, Texas, facility, becomes fully operational, the company expects up to 44 launches a year from KSC, with an additional 76 launches per year projected from SLC-37 at CCSFS. That equals about one Starship launch every eight days for LC-39A, but a higher cadence will be needed to successfully support NASA's Artemis program.

Artemis missions utilize NASA's Orion spacecraft to transport astronauts from the Earth to the moon, and the agency has contracted Starship, as well as Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander, to be the program's crewed lunar landers. All of these vehicles require heavy-lift rockets.

Orion launches on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from LC-39B. For Artemis 4, currently scheduled for 2028, NASA plans to dock Orion with Starship in Earth orbit, and use Starship to propel the two spacecraft to orbit around the moon. Starship will then undock from Orion, carry a set of astronauts down to the lunar surface, and then launch them back to orbit around the moon to rendezvous and dock again with Orion.

To accomplish this, Starship will require at least 15 refueling flights to top off its tanks before its initial burn for the moon, which would fly in addition to the company's projected eight-day launch cadence, according to the report.

Growing demand for heavy-lift rockets is also increasing pressure to find additional launch sites. Blue Moon is designed to launch on New Glenn, and will also require refueling launches to reach the moon. Setting aside the fact that New Glenn recently exploded during a fueling test that severely damaged SLC-36, the report indicates that Blue Origin officials have told NASA that the pad alone may not provide sufficient long-term capacity and resiliency for the company's future plans, and noted that the constraints have already forced the company to delay launches.

Much of the infrastructure between KSC and CCSFS facilities is considered "common-use," the report says, which puts added stress on available resources shared across different launch providers. That includes a massive electrical grid; 231 miles (372 kilometers) of roadway, much of which was paved in the 1960s without consideration for the weight and frequency of super heavy rocket stages being transported to and from launch pads; and more than 40 miles (64 km) of gaseous pipeline supporting nitrogen (GN2) and helium distribution, which is unable to supply high-flow operations from multiple users in its current state.

"This issue created a major scheduling challenge during preparation for the New Glenn-1 mission that launched in January 2025," the report says. It also anticipates further Artemis mission launch constraints if the issue is not addressed.

Artemis 3, targeted for 2027, will require launches of SLS, New Glenn and multiple Starships all within a small handful of days. The mission will see both private landers — if they're both ready — rendezvous with Orion to practice docking maneuvers in low Earth orbit over the course of about two weeks, but the OIG report calls the feasibility of those back-to-back launches into question.

"Kennedy will be unable to provide GN2 for future Space Launch System launches for Artemis from LC 39B while simultaneously supporting Blue Origin's New Glenn launch vehicle launching from Space Launch Complex 36 at CCSFS," the report says. It projects a possible one- to two-month blackout period of GN2 availability as a result of future SLS launches.

The report further found that NASA has struggled to maintain and modernize its launch infrastructure, partially due to declining maintenance budgets and poor funding structures that prevent an equitable recoupment of costs from commercial providers leasing the launch facilities. "Significant statutory funding barriers prevent the Agency from receiving money directly from commercial partners for use of the Agency’s launch infrastructure," the report says. And, as it currently stands, any commercial investment in NASA's infrastructure is deducted from the agency's budget appropriation, in addition to being a violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits the agency from spending federal funds without Congressional approval.

Ultimately, the report recommends prioritizing improvements to NASA's transportation networks, utility systems and resource distribution infrastructure while exploring additional funding mechanisms to support future upgrades. It also suggests three key action items for the space agency:

1. Perform an assessment and create a mitigation strategy to address roadway degradation caused by the increased traffic from heavy-lift launch vehicle transportation and commercial providers.
2. Prioritize the allocation of available funds for the maintenance of common-use launch infrastructure, including roads, electricity distribution, and gaseous pipelines and resource reserves.
3. Explore alternative funding mechanisms and evaluate commercial partnership policies to charge an "Other Approved Indirect Rate" to contribute to upgrades necessary to maintain the aforementioned infrastructure.

"While NASA’s goal is to renew — replace, repair, or upgrade — its infrastructure every 66 years, the current renewal rate, based on the available budget, is over 260 years," the report says.

Humanity is on its way back to the moon as NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) blasts the space agency's Orion space capsule on April 1. The launch was even captured from space!

What is it?

This photo shows NASA's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft blasting off from the historic Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT (2235 GMT) on Wednesday, April 1.

The launch is represented by a white plume of smoke seen by the GOES-19 weather satellite.

Why is it amazing?

The Artemis 2 mission represents the first time that humans have visited the moon since the Apollo 17 mission back in 1972. Not only this, but during this mission, the four-person crew of Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, and Victor Glover will journey farther into space than any other human before them.

The Artemis 2 mission is scheduled to last for around 10 days. Though the crew won't set foot on the lunar surface during this mission, this sets the scene for the future of the Artemis program, particularly Artemis 4 and 5, which will finally return humans to the moon's surface after over half a century.

Follow along with our Artemis 2 mission live updates page for the latest developments.

NASA's next moon rocket casts a striking silhouette against the rising sun in this photo taken just a week prior to the agency's impending Artemis 2 mission, currently scheduled for April 1.

What is it?

This photo shows the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft standing upright at the historic Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

SLS rolled back out to the launch pad on March 20 after being brought in to NASA's massive Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for repairs. Mission teams have secured the rocket's mobile launcher to infrastructure at the pad, connected power and communications linkages and installed the crew's emergency egress system. The tower's crew access arm, through which the four Artemis 2 astronauts will walk to enter the rocket, has been extended to allow them to access their Orion spacecraft.

Why is it amazing?

After years of planning, training and multiple delays, NASA says it's finally ready to launch Artemis 2 on a journey around the moon and back.

"Our flight systems are ready, the ground systems are ready, our launch and operations teams are ready, and our flight operations team in Houston are also ready," Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said during a mission status update on Sunday (March 29).

The four Artemis 2 astronauts  — NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen  — arrived at KSC on Friday (March 27).

If all goes according to plan, Artemis 2 will launch on April 1 at 6:24 p.m. EDT (2224 GMT). NASA has additional launch dates available through April 6, should this attempt be delayed.

Follow along with our Artemis 2 mission live updates page for the latest developments.

100 years ago, a liquid-fueled rocket flew into the sky for the very first time. The unlikely contraption was designed by Clark University physics professor Robbert Goddard, and launched from a cabbage field in Auburn, Massachusetts on March 16, 1926.

Goddard's design climbed a short 40 feet into the air that day, but launched the world into an era of modern rocketry that would lead to the first moon landing less than 50 years later. After his initial success, Goddard continued developing increasingly sophisticated systems and breakthroughs that paved the way for the technological foundation upon which nearly every major rocket, from early missiles and military vehicles to orbital launch vehicles, has been based. And, within only a few decades, would carry humanity's first satellites and eventually astronauts into space.

Now, on the 100th anniversary of that first flight, humanity is poised for a lunar return as the first crewed mission of NASA's Artemis program nears its launch date on a vehicle 30 times larger than Goddard's rocket.

Today, Goddard is regarded as the father of modern rocketry, and is the namesake for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Much of the technologies introduced in his designs are still central to the function of today's launch vehicles, including turbopumps, gimbaling engines and gyroscopic guidance.

Those technologies evolved to support NASA's missions during the space race of the 1960s, carrying astronauts to orbit as part of the agency's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, and, as the decades continued, the space shuttle.

Now, Goddard's fundamentals are being put back to work as a part of NASA's Artemis program to return humanity to the moon.

Standing only 10 feet (3 meters) tall, Goddard's rocket burned liquid oxygen and gasoline — a revolutionary idea at a time when rockets relied almost entirely on solid propellants. Solid rocket boosters, like the kind designed to help lift NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) for Artemis through Earth's atmosphere, are still in use today. Solid boosters, though, come with some disadvantages. Once they're lit, they're lit. There's no extinguishing solid propellants after ignition. They will burn completely through at a consistent thrust until spent.

Liquid propellants, on the other hand, allow engineers to throttle that raw power into a precisely controlled thrust, and offer far more power than their solid predecessors. The concept is simple: liquid fuel and oxidizer are pumped into a chamber where they are ignited to create an explosion of superheated gas that's channeled and expelled from an engine nozzle at tremendous speed, propelling a rocket upward, or in whichever direction it happens to be pointing.

Just like its earliest predecessor, SLS relies on the introduction of a spark to a mixture of pressurized liquid fuel and liquid oxygen to power the massive 322-foot tall (98 meters) rocket into orbit. Atop that rocket when it launches no earlier than April 1, an Orion spacecraft will carry NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day mission around the moon and back to Earth.

Their mission, Artemis 2, is the first crewed flight of NASA's new lunar program, which aims to eventually establish a permanent human presence on the surface of the moon. While the astronauts of Artemis 2 won't be landing on the moon themselves, their mission is an important stepping stone toward NASA's ultimate goal.

Ultimately, Artemis 2 is meant as a crewed shakedown flight for Orion. Similar to the progression of the spaceflight missions of the 1960s, NASA has shaped each flight of the Artemis program to build on its predecessor.

After a successful demonstration of Orion's life support systems around the moon on Artemis 2, Artemis 3 will launch to Earth orbit to practice rendezvous and docking maneuvers with the program's lunar landers. NASA is planning to launch Artemis 3 at some point during 2027, with Artemis 4 reserved as the program's first crewed lunar landing scheduled for 2028.

Artemis 2 is expected to launch much sooner. That mission is potentially just weeks away from liftoff. The Artemis 2 SLS is currently scheduled to roll out from the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to the pad at Launch Complex-39B on March 19. Once there, NASA hopes to prepare the rocket and ground systems for a launch window that lasts from April 1-6.

What began as a small experimental flight in that Massachusetts field ultimately sparked a century of exploration that continues to carry us into the stars today. In the hundred years since Goddard's first launch, rockets have grown from experimental machines to the backbone of space exploration, and enabled humanity's reach of exploration to extend to every planet in our solar system and beyond. And, as NASA prepares to return humanity to the moon with Artemis, the legacy of that first liquid-fueled rocket remains visible in every mission.

The next astronauts headed to the moon are preparing for all contingencies as their mission approaches, and they recently completed a nighttime rehearsal of launch procedures.

NASA's Artemis 2 mission — the first-ever crewed mission of the Orion capsule and Space Launch System (SLS) — is targeting a liftoff between February and April of 2026. Aboard Orion will be NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

The quartet will fly Orion on a journey around the moon, looping around the natural satellite and slingshotting back to Earth on a "free-return" trajectory. The Artemis 2 crew practiced nighttime launch protocols during a recent dress rehearsal at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, during which they donned their spacesuits to review emergency egress procedures on the launch tower.

Beginning on Aug. 12, the Artemis 2 astronauts spent about two nights going through the motions of putting on their spacesuits inside KSC's Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building (O&C), for different launch day scenarios around the Launch Complex-39B (LC-39B) pad and nearby Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), where the Artemis 2 SLS rocket is currently being stacked on its mobile launcher.

One exercise had the crew run through a launch scrub sequence, driving the 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) from O&C to LC-39B, and then back to O&C to gauge routes, communications and timing.

The Artemis 2 crew also practiced emergency egress procedures in the VAB's High Bay 3, the site of the SLS stacking.

In the event of a launch day emergency in which the Artemis 2 crew is already inside Orion or near the top of the launch tower, a rapid exit that puts as much distance as possible between the rocket and the astronauts is necessary to ensure their safety. In these cases, crews board cable trolley baskets secured at the top of the mobile launch platform (MLP), which transport them to the perimeter of LC-39B's "pad terminus area," according to a NASA blog post.

Those baskets are currently on the floor of the VAB, where the MLP and SLS are also currently being housed  —  about 3 miles (5 km) from LC-39B. To complete their emergency egress simulation, the astronauts traveled between both sites.

Moving from O&C to the VAB in full spacesuit attire, the Artemis 2 astronauts ascended the MLP tower to the White Room, the connection area at the end of the MLP crew access arm that opens to Orion's hatch. Back on the VAB floor, the crew practiced entering and exiting the emergency egress baskets.

From there, the crew were transported to the LC-39B perimeter, where the baskets would carry them during an actual launch day emergency. Whisked inside armored response vehicles, the Artemis 2 crew were then driven to predetermined safe zones around KSC before the test was concluded.

Last week's nighttime dress rehearsal closely mirrors a daytime run-through that the crew completed in 2023. Since then, their mission has been delayed several times, kicking the goal post from 2024 to its current NET (no earlier than) date of February 2026 (though the crew says April is more likely).

NASA released highlights from the most recent launch day simulation, following the crew from suit-up, transport, ascent and descent of the launch tower to the cable baskets, and out to the launch pad. That full video is available below:

NASA's first Artemis mission launched an uncrewed Orion on a month-long mission to lunar orbit at the end of 2022. Damage to Orion's heat shield after reentry through Earth's atmosphere and other issues have delayed the program's second mission to 2026.

Artemis 3 is slated to fly NET 2027 and will be the first mission to land astronauts back on the surface of the moon since the end of the Apollo era more than 50 years ago. NASA has tapped SpaceX's Starship rocket as that mission's lunar lander. Starship is facing development delays of its own, threatening further delays if the vehicle isn't ready on NASA's timeline.

The mobile launch platform (MLP) responsible for transporting and supporting NASA's Artemis moon rockets was just rolled to the pad for testing. 

The 380-foot-tall (115 meters) tower connects to NASA's Space Launch System megarocket (SLS), which is set to launch a crew of four astronauts around the moon on its next mission, Artemis 2, near the end of 2024.

Artemis 1 launched from the same MLP on an uncrewed lunar mission in November, 2022. When it did, the force of SLS's first-stage engines and solid rocket boosters left the tower in need of a few repairs; for example, the launch blew the structure's elevator doors off. With those repairs now complete, the MLP has been rolled out to Launch Complex 39B (LC-39B) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida for testing.

Related: NASA's Artemis program: Everything you need to know

The MLP was kept at a designated parking spot outside KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), where NASA's giant crawler-transporter 2 vehicle hoisted and leveled the tower for travel. 

First motion toward LC-39B occurred at 8:27 a.m. EDT (1227 GMT) on Wednesday (Aug. 16), according to a NASA press release. One of NASA's accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted photos of ground teams at KSC facilitating the transfer.

The 4-mile (6.4 kilometers) journey from the MLP's park site to LC-39B was completed over the course of two days, with ground teams pausing overnight. 

On Thursday morning (Aug. 17), agency social media accounts confirmed the tower's arrival at the launch pad, wrapping up its journey at approximately 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT).

Now secured at the pad, NASA's Exploration Ground Systems teams will spend the next several months outfitting, upgrading and testing the MLP. This work will include the addition of a 1.4-million-gallon (5.3 million liters) liquid hydrogen tank to the pad's infrastructure. The tower's egress system, which astronauts and ground teams would use to escape the launch pad during an emergency, will also be refurbished and tested, according to NASA's release.

Following a successful checkout of the MLP's systems at LC-39B, the launch tower will be transported to the VAB, where it will eventually support assembly and stacking operations for the Artemis 2 SLS rocket. If NASA's schedule holds, Artemis 2 will launch a crew of four astronauts on a journey around the moon for the first time in over 50 years. The mission is currently scheduled for late 2024.

That big, tipping bucket at the water park has nothing on NASA. 

Last week, the space agency performed two tests of the water-deluge system at Launch Complex 39B at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, and they were a sight to behold. 

Huge columns of water jetted 100 feet (30 meters) into the sky, then came crashing down on the pad with tremendous and reverberating roars. Recently released video of one of the tests, conducted on Oct. 15, shows the dramatic action. [Photos: NASA's Space Launch System for Deep Space Flights]

Such tests of the "Ignition Overpressure Protection and Sound Suppression" system are part of the work NASA is doing to prep for liftoffs of the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket. That booster is scheduled to fly for the first time in mid-2020.

The maiden launch will send NASA's Orion capsule on a three-week trek around the moon — an uncrewed test flight known as Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1).  

"During the launch of Exploration Mission-1 and subsequent missions, this water-deluge system will release approximately 450,000 gallons [1.7 million liters] of water across the mobile launcher and flame deflector to reduce the extreme heat and energy generated by the rocket during ignition and liftoff," NASA officials wrote in a description of the recent flow test at Pad 39B. 

NASA is developing the SLS and Orion to help astronauts get to the moon, Mars and other destinations in deep space. The huge, powerful rocket should also aid robotic planetary exploration, allowing such missions to reach their faraway targets much faster than has typically been possible, agency officials have said.

Orion has one uncrewed test flight under its belt. In December of 2014, the capsule launched to Earth orbit atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket and completed two laps around our planet before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. 

NASA also tested Pad 39B's water-deluge system in May of this year. The system was upgraded between that earlier trial and the ones conducted last week, agency officials said.

Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There," will be published on Nov. 13 by Grand Central Publishing. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally published on Space.com.

WASHINGTON — NASA's postponementof the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission until at least February is allbut certain to delay the first test flight of the U.S. space agency's newastronaut-launching rocket.

NASAhas been targeting a late-spring launch out of Florida's Kennedy Space Center(KSC) of Ares 1-X, an early prototype of the Ares 1crew launch vehicle the agency intends to field in 2015. The Ares 1, derivedfrom the space shuttle solid-rocket motors, will be used to loft NASA's plannedCrew Exploration Vehicle into space.

Butbefore NASA can move ahead with the Ares 1-X flight, the agency first needs tomake some permanent modifications to a space shuttle launch pad that mustremain unchanged until after the Hubblerepair mission.

CarolScott, NASA's Ares1-X deputy mission manager at KSC, said the basic plan for getting LaunchComplex Pad 39B ready for Ares 1-X remains unchanged, but acknowledged in anOct. 3 interview that a schedule slip appears certain.

"Weare all going through schedule assessments especially now with the Hubbledelay," Scott said. "I do expect to have a new schedule coming out ofthat and then I believe schedules will be adjusted at that point."

Althoughsenior NASA officials told reporters prior to the Hubble setback that the Ares1-X flight likely would not launch before summer, the Ares 1 program and itscontractors have continued to target an April 15 launch date.

Scottsaid a mid-April launch is no longer possible.

"Notwith the Hubble delays we have. We would not be able to meet an April 15date," she said.

SpaceShuttle Atlantis was positioned on Launch Complex Pad 39A with a full load ofspare parts awaiting its scheduled Oct. 14 launch toward Hubble when the18-year-old space telescope experienced an onboard computer failure Sept. 27.The glitch was serious enough that NASA wasted little time announcing that themission would have to be put off for several months.

NASAmade the call while a second space shuttle orbiter, Endeavour, was perched atopneighboring Pad 39B being readied for a so-called launch-on-need rescue missionagency officials hope will not be necessary. NASA rules require that forshuttle missions to destinations other than the international space station, asecond orbiter must be ready to launch on a rescue mission should something gowrong with the first.

Hadthe Hubble repair mission lifted off in mid-October as planned, ground crewswould have gotten to work almost immediately washing down Atlantis' MobileLaunch Platform and preparing the giant tracked vehicle for a number ofmodifications needed to support the Ares 1-X flight. Meanwhile, once it wasclear that Endeavour would not be needed to rescue a stranded Hubble-repaircrew, that orbiter would be moved to Pad 39A for a mid-November launch to thespace station. The Mobile Launch Platform used for Atlantis' liftoff then wouldbe rolled out to Pad 39B where it would undergo a planned 10 weeks worth ofmodifications.

Groundcrews also would begin installation of a command, communications and controlsystem and swap out some interfaces between the pad and launch platform, allwhile continuing to erect a new lightning tower tall enough to protect theroughly 95-meter-tall rocket during the thunderstorms prevalent along theFlorida coast during warmer months.

Scottsaid work on the lightning tower would not be affected by the Hubble delay. Shealso said a number of key changes planned for the pad were not due to get underway until January or February.

"We'restill in design phase so a lot of the [equipment] like the vehiclestabilization system ... aren't slated to come here until April and that willnot be affected by Hubble," she said.

Scottsaid it was too early to determine how much Ares 1-X would be delayed as a resultof Hubble's problems. The Ares program, she said, cannot replan the Ares 1-Xwork until the space shuttle program nails down a new schedule for the Hubblerepair mission.

However,Scott said she is hopeful that Hubble's delay will not result in a month-for-monthslip for Ares 1-X.

"Becausethat's what KSC does best — they will go and reprioritize and reprogram to seehow they can still meet the earliest date. That's what we do here all thetime," she said.

Meanwhile,Ares 1-X flight hardware is starting to ship from various points around the United States. NASA's Cleveland-based Glenn Research Center, for example, has finishedconstruction of an Ares 1-X dummy upper stage and plans to ship that hardwareout before the end of October.

Glennspokeswoman Katherine Martin said a media event is planned for Oct. 22 at the Ohio River port where the dummy rocket stage will begin its journey down to KSC aboard theDelta Mariner, the same vessel that carries Delta 4 rocket stages too big totravel over land.

Scottsaid having the bulk of the rocket and new ground support hardware on handbefore pad modifications begin in earnest actually could permit KSC to workmore efficiently than otherwise might have been possible. This could keep afive-month delay in handover of Pad 39B from translating into a five-monthdelay in the launch of Ares 1-X.

"Hardwaredeliveries will be at more opportune times within the schedule so we can domore parallel work now than we could have," she said. "They probablywill be doing more work in parallel so they may be able to shorten the delay soit may not be the same five-month delay." 

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