MERRITT ISLAND, FL—In a disappointing setback to the hotly anticipated unmanned lunar mission, NASA announced Tuesday that it had delayed the Artemis I launch after the rocket got scared. “Unfortunately, just moments before launch, the rocket got a little spooked and needed to come down,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson, adding that the agency hoped to address the confidence issue with a little pep talk about how brave the Space Launch System rocket had been to attempt the flight at all. “Nobody likes getting cold feet, especially when you’re already on the launchpad with all those people watching. Turning back at the last minute must have been very embarrassing for the poor thing. But the rocket seems to be doing fine now that we’ve calmed it down and explained several times that it wasn’t going to blow up.” At press time, the SLS rocket had reportedly agreed to try for a launch Friday if Nelson would go up with it.