Nasa’s giant new moon rocket has moved to the launchpad in preparation for astronauts’ first lunar fly-around in more than half a century. The trip could blast off in February.
The 98-metre (322ft) rocket began its 1mph (1.6km/h) creep from Kennedy Space Center’s vehicle assembly building at daybreak. The trek of 4 miles took until nightfall.
Thousands of space centre workers and their families gathered in the pre-dawn chill to witness the long-awaited event, delayed for years. They huddled together before the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s exit from the building, built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V rockets that sent 24 astronauts to the moon during the Apollo programme.
The cheering crowd was led by Nasa’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, and all four astronauts assigned to the mission.
Reid Wiseman, the crew commander, said: “What a great day to be here. It is awe-inspiring.”
Weighing in at a total 5m kg, the rocket and Orion crew capsule on top made the move onboard a massive transporter that was used during the Apollo and shuttle eras. It was upgraded for the SLS rocket’s extra heft.
The first and only other SLS launch, which sent an empty Orion capsule into orbit around the moon, took place in November 2022.
“This one feels a lot different, putting crew on the rocket and taking the crew around the moon,” Nasa’s John Honeycutt said on the eve of the rocket’s rollout.
Heat shield damage and other capsule problems during the initial test flight required extensive analyses and tests, pushing back this first crew moonshot until now. The astronauts will not orbit the moon or even land on it. That giant leap will come on the third flight in the Artemis lineup a few years from now.
Wiseman, the pilot Victor Glover and Christina Koch, all longtime Nasa astronauts with space flight experience, will be joined on the 10-day mission by the Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, a former fighter pilot awaiting his first rocket ride.
They will be the first people to fly to the moon since Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out the triumphant lunar landing programme in 1972. Twelve astronauts strolled the lunar surface, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. Only four moonwalkers are still alive; Aldrin, the oldest, turns 96 on Tuesday.
“They are so fired up that we are headed back to the moon,” Wiseman said. “They just want to see humans as far away from Earth as possible discovering the unknown.”
Nasa is waiting to conduct a fuelling test of the SLS rocket on the pad in early February before confirming a launch date.
The space agency has only five days to launch in the first half of February before bumping into March.