It took longer than expected, but NASA’s Space Launch System rocket is back on its launch pad in preparation for sending four astronauts on a historic round-the-moon mission as early as next month.
The 322-foot-tall SLS rocket, topped by NASA’s Orion crew capsule, began rolling out from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:20 a.m. ET March 20 (9:20 p.m. PT March 19). The start of the trip was delayed by more than four hours due to concerns about high winds in the area.
NASA’s rocket and its massive mobile launcher made the 4-mile trek to Launch Complex 39B in 11 hours, traveling at a top speed of less than 1 mph. The trip required the use of a crawler-transporter — the same vehicle used for the Apollo and space shuttle programs, now upgraded for NASA’s Artemis moon program.
The Apollo connection is particularly fitting because this mission, known as Artemis 2, will mark the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972 that astronauts have been sent around the moon. No landing will be made this time around, but the crew is due to go about 4,700 miles beyond the moon’s orbit during their 10-day mission. That would set a new distance record for human spaceflight.
In a post to X, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the overnight rollout marked the beginning of “the next chapter of America’s journey to explore the solar system.”
This was the second launch-pad rollout for Artemis 2’s rocket. The first rollout took place on Jan. 17, and after dealing with some glitches, the launch team conducted a successful dress rehearsal for the countdown on Feb. 20. Unfortunately, engineers ran into a problem with the rocket’s helium pressurization system a day later. That forced NASA to roll the rocket back to the VAB for troubleshooting.
Engineers determined that the flow of helium was blocked by a faulty seal in a quick-disconnect fitting. They quickly repaired and tested the seal. They also took the opportunity to replace batteries for several of the rocket’s systems, charge up the batteries on Orion’s launch abort system, replace a seal on the core stage’s liquid-oxygen feed line and make sure all systems were go for the second rollout.
Now that the rocket is back on the pad, NASA will conduct another round of technical checkups, but mission managers decided that another dress rehearsal won’t be needed. Liftoff could come as soon as April 1, with backup dates available through April 6.
The Artemis 2 crew officially went into quarantine for the mission in Houston on March 18. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch — plus Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — are scheduled to fly to Florida five days before liftoff.
Artemis 2’s flight plan is similar to the plan that was followed for Artemis 1, a test mission that sent a crewless Orion around the moon in 2022. If Artemis 2 goes according to plan, that would set the stage for another test flight scheduled for next year. Artemis 3 is expected to put SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander and/or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander through their paces in low Earth orbit.
NASA’s current plan, which was laid out just last month, calls for the Artemis 4 mission to land astronauts on the lunar surface in 2028. That would be the first crewed moon landing since Apollo 17. And NASA is planning even bigger giant leaps.
Isaacman told CNBC that NASA has a mandate from the White House to “build a moon base, make sure that we pick up where Apollo 17 left off, undertake repeatable, affordable missions to the lunar environment [and] make it a proving ground for subsequent missions, maybe someday to Mars.”
“We’re just getting going again,” Isaacman said.
