Editor’s Note: The timeframe for a wet dress rehearsal has been updated.
At 6:42 p.m. EST on Saturday, Jan. 17, NASA’s Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft reached Launch Pad 39B after a nearly 12-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Hours earlier, NASA’s crawler-transporter 2 began its 4-mile trek with the integrated SLS and Orion stacked on top. Moving at a maximum speed of just 0.82 mph, the crawler carried the towering Moon rocket and spacecraft slowly but surely toward the pad.
Once outside the VAB’s high-bay doors, the rocket made a planned pause allowing teams to reposition the crew access arm – a bridge that provides astronauts and a closeout crew access to Orion on launch day.
In the coming days, engineers and technicians will prepare the Artemis II rocket for the wet dress rehearsal, a test of fueling operations and countdown procedures. Targeted for no later than Feb. 2, the team will load the rocket with cryogenic, or super-cold, propellants, run through the countdown, and practice safely draining the propellants from the rocket – all essential steps before the first crewed Artemis mission.
Additional wet dress rehearsals may be required to ensure the vehicle is completely checked out and ready for flight. If …