NASA, Artemis and SLS rocket
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NASA’s SLS and Orion rolled to the launch pad for the Artemis 2 mission Jan. 17, though uncertainty remains about when the mission will be ready to launch.
The rocket is about to traverse four miles to the launchpad — at about 1 mph.
With launch potentially just three weeks away, the agency is working tirelessly to get the SLS rocket, Orion spacecraft, and the Artemis 2 crew ready for liftoff.
No one in NASA’s Artemis II crew had been born when astronauts last ventured into deep space for the final Apollo program Moon landing in 1972. For the last half-century, human space efforts have focused on science research and technology initiatives aboard low-Earth-orbit spacecraft, culminating with the Inter-national Space Station.
Ahead of the historic mission which will return humans around the moon, NASA's giant SLS rocket is set to roll to the KSC launch pad for testing.