NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket reaches launch pad ahead of potential April launch

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the Artemis II mission has completed the rollout. Along with the Orion crew capsule, the rocket reached Launch Complex-39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida around 10 a.m. EDT (local time) on Friday, March 20. Rollout began shortly after midnight with the first motion at 12:20 a.m. EDT, clocking a nearly 10-hour journey that was livestreamed on the agency's official YouTube channel. NASA’s Crawler-Transporter 2 was tasked with moving the rocket from KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to the launch pad.

The Crawler-Transporter 2 carried the SLS, Orion, and the mobile launch platform (MLP) for a distance of roughly 4 miles, at speeds averaging a mile per hour. The river rock-lined roadway between the VAB and LC-39B was expectedly crushed to sand, as the crawler transported the combined load weighing over 18 million pounds. Notably, this is the second time along this same path for the Artemis II stack, having been rolled back to the VAB on February 26 due to a helium flow issue after the second wet dress rehearsal. Since then, NASA has completed repairs and does not plan any more wet dress rehearsals.

The successful overnight rollout means that NASA can begin final preparations for the Artemis II launch, expected no earlier than April 1. At LC-39B, the ground teams will now work on getting the rocket and pad systems ready for any imminent launch window. The crew has already entered quarantine in Houston and will fly to KSC a few days ahead of the launch. The 10-day mission will mark humanity's first crewed flight beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972. 

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