US EditionRepaired Artemis II Moon Rocket Heads Back to Pad for April 1 Launch Try
NASA’s upgraded crawler-transporter 2 will haul the $4 billion Artemis II launch stack 4.2 miles to Launch Pad 39-B, supporting the first crewed Orion and SLS mission.
- NASA will begin rolling the Artemis II launch stack tonight at 8 p.m. ET from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B for a planned crewed liftoff as early as April 1, 2026.
- Following a helium-flow interruption and earlier liquid-hydrogen leaks, teams rolled Artemis II launch stack back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs earlier this year and opted for a second rollout instead of another wet dress rehearsal, keeping the mission on track.
- The crawler itself measures 131 feet long, 114 feet wide, uses four track belts with 57 six-foot steel shoes, and will travel at about 0.82 mph during the planned 8–12 hour transit.
- The four astronauts have entered quarantine as NASA prepares another wet dress rehearsal and flight readiness review before confirming launch windows with backups April 2–6 and April 30, 2026.
- After upgrades to roller-bearing and lubrication, crawler-transporter 2 , built in 1965, extends its life for heavier Artemis loads carrying $4 billion of hardware.
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The crisis-stricken moon mission "Artemis 2" had to miss out on numerous possible launch dates due to technical problems, but now it is due to start soon.About two weeks before the next possible launch date, the rocket system for the crisis-stricken manned moon mission "Artemis 2" was brought back to the launch site.With the help of a kind of transport car, the approximately 100-metre-high system - consisting of the rocket "Space Launch System" …
NASA prepares Artemis II rocket rollout ahead of planned launch
NASA is preparing to roll its Artemis II rocket back to the launch pad Thursday night, marking another key step toward a planned crewed mission around the moon. The rollout from the Vehicle Assembly Building was scheduled for about 8 p.m. and will move at roughly 1 mile per hour aboard the agency’s crawler-transporter.
Live coverage: NASA to roll its SLS rocket back to the launch pad ahead of planned April flight of Artemis 2
NASA’s Orion spacecraft sits atop the Space Launch System rocket prior to rolling out of the Vehicle Assembly Building and making the four-mile journey to Launch Complex 39B. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now NASA’s Moon rocket is heading back to the launch pad after repairs inside the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. The 322-foot-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, atop the 400-foot-tall Mobile Launcher, w…
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