{"id":21288,"date":"2026-01-20T18:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T10:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/artemis-2s-ride-to-space-is-at-the-pad-to-begin-prelaunch-tests\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T10:22:08","slug":"artemis-2s-ride-to-space-is-at-the-pad-to-begin-prelaunch-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/artemis-2s-ride-to-space-is-at-the-pad-to-begin-prelaunch-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis 2\u2019s ride to space is at the pad to begin prelaunch tests"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/1188896.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1600\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/1188896.jpg?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/1188896.jpg?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/1188896.jpg?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/1188896.jpg?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-attachment-id=\"43971\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/2026\/01\/19\/artemis-2s-ride-to-space-is-at-the-pad-to-begin-prelaunch-tests\/_1188896\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/1188896.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" data-orig-size=\"2000,1000\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Artemis 2 sls rollout\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\n\n<p>Image: Steven Madow \/ Space Explored<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/01\/1188896.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024&#8243;><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\tImage: Steven Madow \/ Space Explored\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After a four-mile ride, Artemis 2\u2018s Space Launch System arrived at its launch site ahead of a pre-launch test that will determine when NASA\u2019s return to human flights to the Moon can begin.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-43970\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saturday morning, the doors of NASA\u2018s largest building, the Vehicle Assembly Building, opened to allow the Space Launch System, its launch platform and tower, and everything else it needs to launch, to \u201cdrive\u201d out to LC-39B.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Riding on top of one of NASA\u2019s crawlers, the rocket and its launch hardware arrived at the launch mount at 6:42 PM ET, Saturday evening. These crawlers have been in use since the Apollo program, and outside of buildings, are likely one of NASA\u2019s largest operating pieces of space hardware. Without them, the Saturn V, Space Shuttle, and now SLS rockets would have never made it to space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now that Artemis 2\u2019s SLS is at the launch pad, teams from both the ground support and launch control sides can begin getting the rocket ready for launch. Ground support teams will begin attaching the rocket to ground hardware to provide it propellants and other consumables needed during launch. Once that\u2019s complete, launch control teams will conduct a wet dress rehearsal to see how the rocket will handle launch day procedures.<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-43970',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NASA shares that multiple wet dress rehearsals may be needed to get the rocket to a point it can launch. NASA also shared it may need to return the SLS rocket to the VAB for additional work before launch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best-case scenario for NASA is that all the tests and wet dress rehearsals go well the first time, and NASA can certify the rocket ready to launch as soon as February 6 for the opening of Artemis 2\u2019s launch window. However, the likelihood of that happening is low.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Artemis 1, NASA had to conduct two wet dress rehearsals and over a month of launch attempts before it finally flew.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No date has been given yet on when NASA will attempt Artemis 2\u2019s wet dress rehearsal. For now, Artemis 2 is still slated for launch no earlier than February 6, pending the rehearsal\u2019s outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21288"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}