KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – After over 4 hours of delays due to continuing high winds all day Thursday, March 19 that stretched into Friday, March 20, NASA at last completed the 2nd rollout of the agency’s Artemis II SLS Moon rocket and Orion spacecraft from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) back out to launch pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The exciting rollout took place after a few weeks of necessary and critical repairs on the rocket inside the VAB to fix the helium flow clog that scrubbed plans to launch the rocket in early March.
A live feed of the rollout is available on NASA’s YouTube channel.
Enjoy our gallery of rollout photos of the Artemis II mega moon rocket taken by Ken Kremer and Jean Wright for Space UpClose
Artemis II will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on an approximately 10-day mission around the Moon and back, marking the first crewed flight of the Artemis program.
Launch of Artemis II is targeted for as early as Wednesday, April 1.
The early April launch window includes a total of six opportunities every day through Monday, April 6.
The 4-mile trek at max speed of ca 0.8 mph takes about 12 hours as the Crawler-Transporter-2 (CT-2) moves the 11 million pounds mass stack of SLS and Orion secured to the mobile launcher from the VAB to top of pad 39B at KSC
NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) and Orion spacecraft mega moon rocket for the Artemis II crewed moonshot mission completed its rollback from launch pad 39B into the VAB where it arrived inside late evening Feb. 25, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida – to fix the helium flow interruption issue detected in the ICPS upper stage during testing overnight Feb. 21 at Launch Complex 39B.
Ken Kremer recent TV interviews:
