NASA's next-generation moon rocket began a highly anticipated, slow-motion journey out of its assembly plant en route to the launch pad in Florida for a final round of tests in the coming weeks that will determine how soon the spacecraft can fly.
NASA's next-generation moon rocket begins its slow-motion journey from the VAB to its launch pad at Cape CanaveralBy Steve Nesius and Steve Gorman
The process of moving the 5.75-million-pound SLS-Orion spacecraft out of its Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building began shortly after 5:30 p.m. EDT under clear skies at Cape Canaveral. A nearly full moon rose about 90 minutes later. The spectacle was carried live on NASA Television and the space agency's website. A band from the University of Central Florida played the National Anthem as the rollout began in front of throngs of employees and other onlookers gathered outside to watch the event.
Engineers plan to fully load the SLS core fuel tanks with super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant and conduct a simulated launch countdown - stopping seconds before the rocket's four R-25 engines would ignite - in a top-to-bottom evaluation of the entire system. But NASA has several steps to take before it gets there, starting with a successful Artemis I flight, planned as an uncrewed journey 40,000 miles beyond the moon and back.
Eight or nine days after those tests are completed and the propellant is drained from the rocket, the ship will be rolled back to the assembly building to await the setting of a launch date.
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