2 days agoShareSaveRebecca Morelle,Alison FrancisandKevin Church,Science teamShareSaveNasa’s mega rocket has been moved to the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as the final preparations get underway for the first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years.Over almost 12 hours, the 98m-tall Space Launch System was carried vertically from the Vehicle Assembly Building on the 4-mile (6.5km) journey to the pad.Now it is in position, the final tests, checks – and a dress rehearsal – will take place, before the go-ahead is given for the 10-day Artemis II mission that will see four astronauts travel around the Moon.Nasa says the earliest the rocket can blast off is 6 February, but there are also more launch windows later that month, as well as in March and April.Kevin Church/ BBC NewsInside their cleanroom, the team is busy building more modules for future Artemis missions. Each one takes about 18 months to put together but has taken thousands of engineering hours to design. Everything on board has to work perfectly.”We’ve got to get those astronauts to the Moon and then back again, completely safely,” says Cleaver.With the rocket now on launchpad 39B, the Artemis team is working around the clock to get it ready for lift off.The mission has already faced years of delays, and Nasa is under pressure to get the astronauts on their way as soon as possible. However, the US space agency said it would not compromise on safety.John Honeycutt, chair of the Artemis mission management team, said: “I’ve got one job, and it’s the safe return of Reid and Victor and Christina and Jeremy. “We’re going to fly when we’re ready… crew safety is going to be our number one priority.” …
