NASA’s new moon rocket strikes to the pad forward of astronaut launch as early as February

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s large new moon rocket moved to the launch pad Saturday in preparation for astronauts’ first lunar fly-around in additional than half a century.

The out-and-back journey may blast off as early as February.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket started its 1-mph (1.6-kph) creep from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at dawn. The 4-mile (6-kilometer) trek took till dusk.

Thousands of house middle staff and their households gathered within the predawn chill to witness the long-awaited event, delayed for years. They huddled collectively forward of the Space Launch System rocket’s exit from the constructing, constructed within the Sixties to accommodate the Saturn V rockets that despatched 24 astronauts to the moon in the course of the Apollo program. The cheering crowd was led by NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman and all 4 astronauts assigned to the mission.

“What a great day to be here,” mentioned Reid Wiseman, the crew commander. “It is awe-inspiring.”

Weighing in at 11 million kilos (5 million kilograms), the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule on high made the transfer aboard an enormous transporter that was used in the course of the Apollo and shuttle eras. It was upgraded for the SLS rocket’s further heft.

The first and solely different SLS launch — which despatched an empty Orion capsule into orbit across the moon — passed off again in November 2022.

“This one feels a lot different, putting crew on the rocket and taking the crew around the moon,” NASA’s John Honeycutt mentioned on the eve of the rocket’s rollout.

Heat defend harm and different capsule issues in the course of the preliminary check flight required intensive analyses and assessments, pushing again this primary crew moonshot till now. The astronauts received’t orbit the moon and even land on it. That large leap will take come on the third flight within the Artemis lineup a couple of years from now.

Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and Christina Koch — longtime NASA astronauts with spaceflight expertise — can be joined on the 10-day mission by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, a former fighter pilot awaiting his first rocket experience.

They would be the first folks to fly to the moon since Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out the triumphant lunar-landing program in 1972. Twelve astronauts strolled the lunar floor, starting with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. Only 4 moonwalkers are nonetheless alive; Aldrin, the oldest, turns 96 on Tuesday.

“They are so fired up that we are headed back to the moon,” Wiseman mentioned. “They just want to see humans as far away from Earth as possible discovering the unknown.”

NASA is ready to conduct a fueling check of the SLS rocket on the pad in early February earlier than confirming a launch date.

“We’ve, I think, zero intention of communicating an actual launch date” till finishing the fueling demo, Isaacman advised reporters.

The house company has solely 5 days to launch within the first half of February earlier than bumping into March.

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