NASA transports Artemis II moon rocket to launch pad for February flight

After months of meticulous preparation, NASA 32-Stage Space Launch System Rocketthe world’s most powerful operational booster, began its 4-mile journey to the launch pad early Saturday, paving the way for a long-awaited flight next month to send four astronauts on a journey around the moon.

The 5.7 million pound rocket, carried by an upgraded Apollo-era tracked transporter tipping the scales at about 6 million pounds, began the journey to Pad 39B just after 7 a.m. local time, exiting NASA’s cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at a top speed of just under 1 mph.

Hundreds of space center workers, family members and guests gathered near the VAB and along the tracked path to take in the views, posing for selfies and enjoying a cool Saturday morning as the massive moon rocket slowly passed by.

New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and the Artemis II astronauts – Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen – were also on hand to witness this milestone.

“Wow. LET’S GO!!!” Wiseman posted a photo of the SLS rocket emerging from the VAB on social media platform X. In another article, he called the SLS and its Orion crew capsule an “art of engineering.”

Generating some 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, the SLS is the most powerful rocket ever operated by NASA, including the agency’s legendary Saturn 5 moon rocket. Its thrust is a little more than half that of SpaceX’s Super Heavy-Starship rocket, but after a successful unmanned test flight in 2022 – Artemis I – NASA deemed it safe enough to take astronauts on board.

The SpaceX rocket is still in the testing phase and it is unclear when it might make its first flight with people on board.

The Artemis II crew plans to blast off in early February to test their Orion crew capsule in Earth orbit before heading into deep space for a flight around the Moon that will carry them further from Earth than any astronaut has ever dared. In doing so, they will have the chance to observe the hidden side of the Moon in more detail.

“I think one of the most magical things for me about this experience is when I looked out a few mornings ago, there was a beautiful crescent (moon) at sunrise, and I really only see the dark side,” Wiseman told reporters during the SLS deployment. “It was a waning crescent here, so it’s a waxing gibbous on the other side.”

He added: “And just thinking about all the landmarks that we’ve studied on the other side, and how incredible that will be, and seeing the Earth rise, that kind of thing, just turning the Moon around and seeing it from another angle, that’s what I’m thinking when I look at (the Moon) right now.”

Once the SLS rocket is “down” at Launch Complex 39B — the trip to the seaside was expected to take eight to 10 hours — engineers will begin about two weeks of carefully planned testing and verification before a critical refueling test around Feb. 2, when nearly 800,000 gallons of very cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen will be pumped aboard for a “wet” dress rehearsal countdown.

“One of the first things that happens once we get on the platform is we’re logging in…all the validations, we’re hooked up to the firing room, we’re getting ready to power up the individual elements,” said launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson. “We’re going to get started on our crew module work (and) we’re going to power everything up.”

Blackwell-Thompson added: “We’ve been progressively testing all of that offline or in the VAB integrated environment and now it’s just getting out on the pad and testing those pad interfaces. … Wet hold is the big test on the pad. That’s the one to watch out for, I guess, that’s the driver to throw.”

The SLS rocket’s maiden flight in 2022 has been repeatedly delayed due to propellant loading problems and persistent hydrogen leaks. For the rocket’s second flight, NASA and its team of contractors implemented several upgrades and procedural changes to minimize or eliminate such problems the second time around.

“Artemis I was a test flight and we learned a lot during this campaign before launch,” Blackwell-Thompson said. “And the things that we learned about how to charge this vehicle, how to charge (liquid oxygen), how to charge hydrogen, have all been incorporated into how we intend to charge the Artemis II vehicle.”

Due to the relative positions of Earth and the Moon, as well as the trajectory NASA plans to use for Artemis II, the agency only has five launch opportunities in February: February 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11. As the deployment took place a few days later than expected, pushing the supply test back to early February, it appears that only the last three opportunities are still available.

But a leak-free refueling test, in the absence of any other major problems, will pave the way for a launch attempt one or two of these days. Otherwise, the next round of launch windows will open in March.

A wild card in the mission planning is the launch of a new crew to the International Space Station to replace four crew members who returned to Earth earlier than planned on Thursday due to a medical issue affecting one of the astronauts. This launch was originally scheduled for February 15, but NASA officials are considering moving it forward several days to minimize the gap between crews.

NASA flight controllers want to avoid flying two manned spacecraft at the same time. If the space station crew replacement flight remains on track, or if problems are found during the SLS refueling test, agency officials could be forced to delay the Artemis II launch until the next round of opportunities in March.

But Isaacman is keeping NASA’s options open.

“I think we have no intention of communicating an actual launch date until we’re done wearing a wet suit,” he said. “But look, this is our first window, and if everything goes according to plan, I know the teams are prepared, I know this crew is prepared. We’ll take it.”