The NASA spacecraft set to take Americans on a journey around the moon, as part of the agency's Artemis II mission, reached its launch pad on Saturday evening at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The integrated SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft — which will hold the four astronauts flying the mission — arrived at Launch Pad 39B just before 7 p.m.
The 4-mile trek to ferry the 11 million-lb rocket stack from the Vehicle Assembly Building took nearly 12 hours.
The goal of the Artemis program is to eventually send Americans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, with the longer term goal of achieving missions to Mars.
"The architecture you see behind us here with SLS and the Orion spacecraft is just the beginning," NASA director Jared Isaacman told reporters early Saturday.
"Now, over time, launching missions like this, we are going to learn a lot and the vehicle architecture will change. And as it changes, we should be able to undertake repeatable, affordable missions to and from the moon."
The lunar launch could be staged as early as Feb. 6, depending on team and rocket readiness.
The craft's four astronauts — Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen — will first orbit Earth before traveling around the moon. The journey is expected to take around 10 days.
The launch of Artemis II follows the original Artemis launch, which sent a crewless craft into space in 2022.
What the lunar orbit would teach its onboard scientists, Isaacman said, "is what's going to enable missions like Artemis 100 and beyond," adding that he hoped the mission would inspire future generations of astronauts as well.
"Why are we doing this? We are doing this to fulfill a promise — a promise to the American people that we will return to the moon."
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