KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida\u2014The rocket NASA is preparing for sending four astronauts on a trip around the Moon will emerge from its assembly building on Florida\u2019s Space Coast early Saturday for a slow crawl to its seaside launch pad.<\/p>\n
Riding atop one of NASA\u2019s diesel-powered crawler transporters, the Space Launch System rocket and its mobile launch platform will exit the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center around 7:00 am EST (11:00 UTC). The massive tracked transporter, certified by Guinness as the world\u2019s heaviest self-propelled vehicle, is expected to cover the four miles between the assembly building and Launch Complex 39B in about eight to 10 hours.<\/p>\n
The rollout marks a major step for NASA\u2019s Artemis II mission, the first human voyage to the vicinity of the Moon since the last Apollo lunar landing in December 1972. Artemis II will not land. Instead, a crew of four astronauts will travel around the far side of the Moon at a distance of several thousand miles, setting the record for the farthest humans have ever ventured from Earth.<\/p>\n
The flight will culminate with a scorching 25,000 mph (40,000 km\/h) reentry over the Pacific Ocean. The four Artemis II astronauts\u2014NASA\u2019s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada\u2019s Jeremy Hansen\u2014will become the fastest humans in history, edging out a speed record set during the Apollo era of lunar exploration.<\/p>\n
The journey for the fully assembled Moon rocket will begin early Saturday at a slower pace. After leaving the Vehicle Assembly Building, the moving 11 million pound structure will head east, then make a left turn before climbing the ramp to Pad 39B overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be at a cruising speed of under 1 mile per hour,\u201d said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA\u2019s launch director for the Artemis II mission. \u201cIt\u2019ll be a little slower around the turns and up the hill.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crawler carrying the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft was built 60 years ago to haul NASA\u2019s Saturn V rockets, then kept around for the Space Shuttle Program. Now, the vehicle is back to its original purpose of positioning Moon-bound rockets on their launch pads.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the kinds of days that we live for when you do the kind of work that we do,\u201d said John Honeycutt, chair of NASA\u2019s Mission Management Team for the Artemis II mission. \u201cThe rocket and the spacecraft, Orion Integrity<\/em>, are getting ready to roll to the pad\u2026 It really doesn\u2019t get much better than this, and we\u2019re making history.\u201d<\/p>\n You can watch live views of the rollout in this YouTube stream provided by NASA.<\/p>\n