NASA’s Space Launch System rocket was back on the move overnight ahead of its second mission to the moon, which will be the first time the vehicle has a crew.
What is it?
This photo, taken by Space.com senior producer Steven Spaleta, shows NASA’s Space Launch System rocket (SLS) rolls out of the agency’s massive Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) in the early morning hours of March 20, 2026.
SLS began its move around 8 p.m. EDT March 19 (0000 GMT March 20) and slowly moved across the 4 mile (6.4 km) track of historic Launch Pad 39B atop NASA’s massive Crawler-Transporter 2 vehicles. The journey took around 12 hours.
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This was the second time NASA rolled out the rocket. After first rollout on January 17the Artemis 2 team conducted a wet dress rehearsal (WDR), fueled the rocket and ran through a mock countdown. It identified one leakage of liquid hydrogenwhich was attached to the pillow. On February 21, NASA identified another problem with the rocket’s helium flow, prompting mission managers to roll the Artemis 2 rocket back to the VAB.
After fix the problem earlier this monthSLS was once again rolled out to Launch Pad 39B overnight today.
Why is it amazing?
SLS is scheduled to launch NASA’s Artemis 2 mission no earlier than April 1, will send a crew of four astronauts around the moon and back in the agency’s Orion spacecraft.
Artemis 2 will see NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen from Canadian Space Agency be the first to fly by low earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
If NASA can’t launch on April 2, there are other options throughout the month. The agency is looking at a new launch window opening in May, but has yet to announce any potential dates past April.
