NASA delivers 11MILLION lbs rocket to launch pad for moon mission

by · Mail Online

The countdown to the first moon mission in more than 50 years officially started Saturday, as NASA rolled out the massive rocket set to blast off in just weeks.

The 11million pound Artemis II rocket reached the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida after nearly 12-hour crawl from its home in NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building.

The 10-day manned mission to orbit the moon is set to launch as early as February 6, marking the first manned mission to leave low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Artemis II will not land on the moon, with NASA saying that the future Artemis III mission scheduled for 2027 will return humans to the lunar surface.

The space agency said Artemis, 'will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.'

The crawler-transporter 2 vehicle carried Artemis II's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft along a four-mile route from an assembly building to Launch Pad 39B.

At the launch pad, engineers will spend the next few days preparing SLS and Orion for a 'wet rehearsal' test that includes loading all the propellants that will blast the rocket into space.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the mission would fulfill 'a promise to the American people that we will return to the moon.'

Artemis II (Pictured) arrived at NASA's Launch Pad 39B Saturday evening as the space agency prepares for its first moon mission in 53 years
Pictured: The rocket will propel a four-person team, comprised of three NASA astronauts and an astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency, out of Earth's atmosphere as soon as February 6
From L-R: Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen stands alongside NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman. Wiseman will also serve as the mission's commander. The group of four address reporters with the rocket and spacecraft directly behind them

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen are scheduled to briefly orbit the Earth after detaching the Orion spacecraft from its rockets and then set off on their lunar flyby. 

With Artemis II now at the launching site, NASA will soon load over 700,000 gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen into the SLS rocket, which are the propellants that ignite and blast the craft into orbit.

NASA will then run through a fake countdown to launch, practice holds and restarts, and then safely drain the tanks of the fuel until it's time for the real launch.

These rehearsals of the fueling procedures help check for any problems with the rocket, such as leaks in the rocket tanks or valves.

If any problems are spotted, NASA will likely need to run multiple rehearsals and possibly delay the launch to one of the many alternate dates already chosen by the space agency.

February 7, 8, 10, and 11 have been chosen as potential backup launch dates if problems or weather issues postpone the February 6 launch. If something prevents a launch in February, NASA has also picked out dates in early March and April.

In September 2025, former NASA Administrator Sean Duffy publicly announced that 'about a year and a half' after the Artemis II mission, the Artemis III astronaut mission would 'land and establish a long-term presence of life on the moon led by America'.

He continued by saying that what astronauts learn from the renewed missions to the moon will help in future efforts to 'put American boots on Mars'. 

Pictured: Early in the morning on Saturday, January 17, NASA begins to move the Artemis II rocket out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Next month, it will be used for the first manned mission to the moon since 1972

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Over the first 24 to 48 hours in Earth orbit after blasting off, the four astronauts will conduct extensive tests of the Orion spacecraft's life support systems, guidance and navigation computers, and communications before attempting the moon mission. 

The journey to the moon is scheduled to take about three to four days, ending with the spacecraft conducting a lunar flyby, looping around the far side of the moon roughly 5,500 miles above the surface.

Artemis II won't enter orbit around the moon, allowing the crew to test deep-space operations and gather data while traveling farther from Earth than any previous human mission.

The moon's gravity will help slingshot the spacecraft back toward Earth on the return leg of the trip, which will take another three to four days.

Pictured: The Artemis II rocket sits in the Vehicle Assembly Building prior to its move
Pictured: The Orion spacecraft sits atop the Artemis II rocket. The spacecraft will carry the astronauts to the moon and back
Pictured: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stands with the four astronauts during a press briefing

Koch emphasized how important adaptability is for an astronaut, especially since none of them have been to the moon and it's been decades since a mission like this has been undertaken. 

'This idea that, yes, you train and prepare for everything, but the most important thing is that you're ready to take on what you haven't prepared for,' Koch said.

'The moon is like a witness plate for everything that's actually happened to Earth but has since been erased by our weathering processes and our tectonic processes and our other geologic processes,' the astronaut continued.

'We can actually learn more about solar system formation, more about how planets form maybe around other stars, more about the likelihood of life out there - starting with studying the moon.'

At the end of the mission, Artemis II will splash down in the Pacific Ocean, and the spacecraft and crew will be recovered with the help of the US Navy.