Nasa’s mega Moon rocket arrives at launch pad

NASA’s mega-rocket has been moved to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, as final preparations begin for the first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years.

For nearly 12 hours, the 98 m high space launch system was transported vertically from the vehicle assembly building on the 6.5 km journey to the platform.

Now that it is in place, final tests, checks – and a dress rehearsal – will take place, before the green light is given for the 10-day Artemis II mission which will see four astronauts travel around the Moon.

NASA says the earliest the rocket can take off is February 6, but there will also be other launch windows later in the month, as well as in March and April.

The rocket began moving at 7:04 a.m. local time (12:04 p.m. GMT) and arrived at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center at 6:41 p.m. local time (11:42 p.m. GMT).

The rocket was carried by a huge machine called a tracked transporter, traveling at a maximum speed of 0.82 mph (1.3 km/h) as it moved. Live coverage captured the slow-moving spectacle.

NASA said the rocket would be prepared over the next few days for what it called a “wet dress rehearsal” – a test for fuel operations and countdown procedures.

The Artemis II crew – NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen – were at the Kennedy Space Center to observe the rocket as it moved.

In just a few weeks, the four astronauts will be strapped into a spaceship, perched atop the rocket, ready to blast off to the Moon.

It will be the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 landed on its surface in December 1972.

NASA said the mission could take its astronauts further into space than anyone has gone before.

Artemis II is not expected to land on the Moon, but will lay the groundwork for a future lunar landing led by the Artemis III mission.

NASA has said the Artemis III launch will take place “at the earliest” in 2027. But experts believe 2028 is the earliest possible date.

Koch said it was an incredible feeling to see the rocket.

“Astronauts are the calmest people on launch day. And I think… that’s what it feels like because we’re so ready to fulfill the mission that we came here for, that we trained for,” she said.

Hansen said he hoped the mission would inspire the world.

“The Moon is something I take for granted. I’ve looked at it my whole life, but then you just take one look and look away,” he said.

“But now I observe it a lot more, and I think others will join us and observe the Moon a lot more because there will be humans flying to the other side and that’s just good for humanity.”

Before Artemis II heads to the Moon, the first two days of its mission will be spent in orbit around Earth.

“We will almost immediately move into an orbit that is 40,000 miles away, which is a fifth of the distance to the Moon,” Koch told BBC News.

“We will have the Earth out the window as a single ball, something none of us have seen from this perspective.

“And then we’re going to travel a quarter of a million miles…we’re going to do a lot of scientific research and operations along the way.”

While flying over the far side of the Moon, the crew will have three hours dedicated to observing the Moon: to gaze, take images and study its geology, which will help plan and prepare for a future landing on the Moon’s south pole.

A key part of the Orion spacecraft in which the astronauts will fly was manufactured in Bremen, Germany.

The European Service Module, located behind the crew capsule, is the European Space Agency’s contribution to the mission and was built by Airbus.

“The European Service Module is so important that we practically cannot go to the Moon without it,” says Sian Cleaver, spacecraft engineer at Airbus.

“It provides the propulsion Orion needs to get us to the Moon.”

Its large solar panels will produce all the electrical energy needed for the machine, she adds.

“We also have large tanks filled with oxygen and nitrogen, which are mixed to produce air, but also water, so we can provide the astronauts with everything they need in the crew module to keep them alive during their journey.”

In their clean room, the team is busy building more modules for future Artemis missions. Each takes about 18 months to assemble, but required thousands of engineering hours to design. Everything on board must work perfectly.

“We need to get these astronauts to the Moon, and then back, safely,” Cleaver says.

With the rocket now on launch pad 39B, the Artemis team is working around the clock to prepare it for liftoff.

The mission has already been years behind schedule and NASA is under pressure to get the astronauts out as quickly as possible. However, the US space agency said it would not compromise on security.

John Honeycutt, chairman of the Artemis Mission Management Team, said: “I have one job, and that is the safe return of Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy.

“We will fly when we are ready…the safety of the crew will be our number one priority.”