The rocket that will launch a crew of four astronauts on a trip around the moon and back has arrived at its launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the Orion space capsule and the rocket's mobile launch platform made the four-mile journey Saturday from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly building to Launch Pad 39B.
It's a critical step forward in the launch campaign of the Artemis II mission, which will send a crew of four astronauts on a 10-day mission around the moon and back.
The Artemis II crew is made up of three NASA astronauts – commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch – and mission specialist Jeremey Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency. The crew was at KSC for the rollout of their moon rocket.
"We see this beautiful hardware behind us, the SLS, the Orion, but for this crew, we've been on this journey for about two and a half years, and we truly look at that and see teamwork," said Wiseman.
With the rocket now at the pad, critical final preparations and testing of the hardware is underway. That includes checkouts of the rockets and its twin solid rocket boosters, an emergency egress test for the crew, and a simulation of the fueling and countdown of the rocket – known as the wet dress rehearsal.
Teams will load the rocket with super-chilled liquid hydrogen and oxygen – the rocket fuel used for SLS – and practice the countdown of launch day, stopping just 29 seconds before actual liftoff. The wet dress rehearsal gives the launch team at KSC an opportunity to practice the actual launch, and look for issues like fuel leaks.
"We'll take some time after wet dress, we'll review the data and then we'll set up for our launch attempt," said Artemis II launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson.
The Artemis II mission has launch opportunities Feb. 6-8 and 10-11, although NASA has not officially announced a target launch date just yet. The agency has additional opportunities in March and April.
"We need to see what lessons that we learn as a result of that, and that will ultimately lay out our path toward launch," Blackwell-Thompson said. "With a wet dress that is without significant issues – if everything goes to plan – then certainly there are opportunities within February that could be achievable."
Artemis II is a critical mission in NASA's plans to return humans to the moon, and would be the first time astronauts traveled beyond low-Earth orbit since the final Apollo mission in 1972. The mission would mark the farthest any humans have been in deep space.
"This is the start of a very long journey," said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman. "I hope someday my kids are going to be watching, maybe decades into the future, the Artemis 100 mission. Now we're talking about a lot of repeated missions, humans and crew members and cargo going to and from the lunar environment."
But that lunar ambition depends on the success of Artemis II, during which the crew will test critical elements of the Orion spacecraft like its life support systems, control interfaces, radiation protection and its heat shield.
Follow-up missions like Aretemis III will attempt to send humans to the lunar surface, although the development of the lunar lander that will get them there, and the space suits that will protect astronauts on the surface, has been delayed.
All eyes will be on Artemis II as it paves the way for those future missions.
Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch hopes her mission will inspire the public and garner more interest in human spaceflight.
"When they look up at the moon, during our mission, before our mission, after our mission, during Artemis II and missions beyond," Koch said, "they'll know that not only have we been there in the past, but we actively go there. We send people there because we're humans that must explore."
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