NASA hauled its Artemis II moon rocket off its seaside pad Wednesday for a slow trip back to a processing facility to track down and fix a helium pressurization problem that delayed launch of four astronauts on a flight around the moon from this month to at least April 1.A 6.6-million-pound Apollo-era crawler-transporter rolled up the ramp to pad 38B on Tuesday and was positioned directly under the 3.5-million-pound Space Launch System rocket and its 11.3-million-pound mobile launch platform.The Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and its mobile launch platform were hauled off pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center early Wednesday for a slow trip back to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building for work to repair a helium pressurization problem with the rocket’s upper stage. The rollback has delayed the launch of four astronauts on a flight around the moon to at least April 1. / Credit: NASAAfter a check of the weather to make sure winds would be within safety limits, engineers used the crawler’s hydraulic system to lift the SLS rocket and its launch platform off its support pedestals and then began inching back toward the Kennedy Space Center’s cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at 9:38 a.m. EST.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe 4-mile trip of the crawler and its towering load, tipping the scales at a combined 23.6 million pounds, was expected to take 10 to 12 hours to complete, with several stops and starts expected along the way.Once inside the VAB, engineers plan to deploy service platforms to gain access to the rocket’s upper stage, known as the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, or ICPS.Following a successful fueling test last week, engineers were unable …
