CAPE CANAVERAL: 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 to determine how soon the spacecraft can fly.
The rollout of the 32-storey-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion crew capsule marks a key milestone in US plans for renewed lunar exploration after years of setbacks, and the public’s first glimpse of a space vehicle more than a decade in development.
The process of moving the 5.75-million-pound SLS-Orion spacecraft out of its Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building began under clear skies at Cape Canaveral. The SLS-Orion, which cost some $37 billion to develop including ground systems, constitutes the backbone of the NASA’s Artemis program, aimed at returning astronauts to the moon and establishing a long-term lunar colony before eventual human exploration of Mars.
The megarocket – standing taller than the Statue of Liberty – was being slowly trundled to Launch Pad 39B atop an enormous tractor-crawler creeping at less than a mile per hour on a 4-mile journey expected to take about 11 hours. The crawler is operated by a 25-person crew.
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 employees and other onlookers gathered outside to watch the event.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the world’s most powerful rocket, right here,” NASA chief Bill Nelson told the crowd, gesturing toward the spacecraft minutes after the rollout started. “Humanity will soon embark on a new era of exploration.” Among those in the crowd was former astronaut Tom Stafford, who orbited the moon as commander of Apollo 10 in 1969.
.@NASA_SLS and @NASA_Orion are on the way to Pad 39B! Check out photos as they were rolled out atop the mobile launcher! ????https://t.co/RgnwqO63ib pic.twitter.com/flKzQ9PHnJ
— NASA HQ PHOTO (@nasahqphoto) March 18, 2022
The rollout, paving the way for NASA’s uncrewed Artemis I mission around the moon and back, was delayed last month by a series of technical hurdles the space agency said it has since resolved as teams readied the rocket for the launch pad.
The SLS-Orion ship is to be prepared for a critical pre-flight test called a “wet dress rehearsal” which will begin on April 3 and take about two days to complete. 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. The outcome will determine when NASA will attempt its first launch of the rocket and capsule combination, a mission designated Artemis I.
The Orion capsule will carry a simulated crew of three – a male mannequin named “Commander Moonikin Campos,” in honour of the late NASA engineer Arturo Campos, who played a key role in bringing Apollo 13 back to Earth after an in-flight accident, and two female mannequins.
NASA has said it was reviewing potential Artemis I launch windows in April and May, but the timeline could slip depending on results of the dress rehearsal. 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.
NASA announced in November that it would aim to achieve its first human lunar landing of Artemis as early as 2025, preceded by an a crewed Artemis flight around the moon and back in 2024. Nelson also called Artemis an “economic engine” that in 2019 alone generated $14 billion in commerce and supported 70,000 US jobs.
