NASA Pulls Out Artemis II Rocket to Launch Pad Ahead of Historic Moon Mission

This Saturday, NASA will move the Artemis II moon rocket to its launch pad, preceding what will become, presumably, the first crewed trip to lunar space in more than 50 years. One of the key elements of the NASA Artemis programme of lunar exploration that has the ambitious agenda of returning to the Moon and, subsequently, deploying astronauts to Mars, is the mission, which includes four astronauts orbiting the Moon and returning to Earth.

Rollout to Launch Pad

According to NASA, crawler-transporter 2 will haul the Artemis II rocket and its Orion crew capsule from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39B, starting in the early hours of Saturday (17 January). The roughly 5,000-tonne stack (about 11 million pounds) will move at walking pace along the 6.5 km route to the pad – a slow four-mile trek expected to last up to 12 hours. NASA will livestream the rollout, allowing the public to watch the slow-motion move online.

Mission context

Artemis II follows on from the uncrewed Artemis I mission in late 2022, with four astronauts-three American and one Canadian-on a roughly 10-day flyby of the Moon. The crew will test Orion's life-support and communications systems in the deep-space environment. All going to plan, NASA aims to launch Artemis II in early 2026, on 6 February- following a full propellant loading rehearsal called a "wet dress rehearsal." The mission sets the scene for more ambitious Moon landings and is consistent with NASA's long-term ambition of a permanent human presence on the Moon surface, a stepping stone for eventual missions to Mars.