NASA’s Artemis II rocket rolls to launch pad in final bid to meet April deadline
NASA’s Artemis II moon rocket is on the move again, as the space agency prepares the spacecraft for a potential launch before the April deadline.
This is the second time the 98-meter-tall Space Launch System and Orion capsule stack have been deployed to the launch pad this year, with the first having took place on January 17. But after two wet dress rehearsals and two leaks, NASA decided to roll back the rocket to the vehicle assembly building for repair.
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Shipping from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the 11 million pound (5 million kilogram) stack travels at a speed of about 1 mph (1.6 km/h) over a 4 mile (6.4 kilometer) course.
The trip is expected to last up to 12 hours, the journey delayed for several hours due to high windsaccording to NASA.
Once on the platform, the rocket will undergo a series of final tests, including a wet dress rehearsal to fill the rocket with hydrogen and oxidant. If all of these obstacles are overcome, NASA will announce a date in the April window, which includes April 1-6 as well as April 30, for a launch attempt.
In 2024, the space agency has set April 2026 as the earliest deadline for the launch of Artemis II, after which the mission will be considered delayed.
This is not the first time an Artemis rocket has encountered problems. The SLS rocket for the Artemis I mission I returned to the vehicle assembly building more than once in 2022, before finally take off and complete its uncrewed test flight around the moon later that year.
These cumulative delays led NASA to announce a major overhaul of the Artemis program the agency is now aiming for annual launches, potentially drop SpaceX and Boeing of its mission plans, and are targeting two moon landings in 2028.
NASA says returning to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo era will be a vital test of its systems before attempting a future crewed mission to Mars and beyond.
