KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida—In preparation for a significant milestone in human space exploration, NASA is set to move its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket—intended to transport four astronauts around the Moon—from its assembly building on Florida’s Space Coast to the launch pad early Saturday.
Mounted on NASA’s diesel-powered crawler transporter, the SLS rocket, along with its mobile launch platform, will depart the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center at around 7:00 am EST (11:00 UTC). The transporter, recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s heaviest self-propelled vehicle, will undertake a cautious four-mile journey to Launch Complex 39B, expected to take between eight to ten hours.
This rollout is a crucial development for NASA’s Artemis II mission—the first human expedition to the Moon’s vicinity since the last Apollo lunar landing in December 1972. Although Artemis II will not involve a lunar landing, it will see a crew of four astronauts orbit the far side of the Moon, achieving the record for humans venturing the farthest from Earth.
The mission will conclude with an intense reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of 25,000 mph (40,000 km per hour) over the Pacific Ocean. The Artemis II crew, consisting of NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, are set to become the fastest humans in history, surpassing speed records from the Apollo era.
Origin Story
The journey for the fully-assembled Moon rocket commences early Saturday with deliberate care. Upon exiting the Vehicle Assembly Building, the vast 11 million-pound structure will journey eastwards, then turn left before ascending the incline to Pad 39B facing the Atlantic Ocean.
“We will be at a cruising speed of under one mile per hour,” stated Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA's launch director for the Artemis II mission. “It’ll be a little slower around the turns and up the hill.”
The crawler transporter, responsible for moving the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, boasts a 60-year legacy of hauling NASA’s Saturn V rockets and later supporting the Space Shuttle Program. This venerable vehicle has now returned to its original mission: positioning Moon-bound rockets on their launch platforms.
John Honeycutt, chair of NASA's Mission Management Team for Artemis II, expressed excitement: “These are the kinds of days that we live for when you do the kind of work that we do. The rocket and the spacecraft, Orion Integrity, are getting ready to roll to the pad … It really doesn’t get much better than this, and we’re making history.”
You can watch live views of the rollout on this YouTube stream provided by NASA.
Artemis II marks the inaugural crewed flight of NASA’s Artemis program, aptly named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology. Though the Artemis initiative received its name in 2019, its foundational components have been in development for the past two decades.