Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

NASA’s next-generation rocket returns to assembly building today

By

Following a successful test of its fueling capabilities last month, NASA’s next-generation rocket, the Space Launch System, will return to its home at the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today. The rocket, intended to eventually carry astronauts back to the moon under the Artemis program, could launch for the first time on the uncrewed Artemis I mission in late August or early September.

Artemis I Wet Dress Rehearsal

For the fueling test, called the wet dress rehearsal, the rocket was wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building or VAB and onto Launch pad 39B where it has stayed for the past few weeks. Now, the rocket will head back inside for final adjustments. But moving the 212-foot-tall rocket across the four miles from the launch pad to the building isn’t a simple task, it requires the use of a massive crawler and takes several hours.

Recommended Videos

Returning the rocket to the building had originally been scheduled for yesterday, Friday, July 1, but was pushed back by one day due to the path along which the crawler travels, called the crawlerway, being uneven. “The inclined pathway must be precisely level with an even distribution of the rocks that make up the crawlerway in order to support the load of the mobile launcher and rocket that it will carry,” NASA explained, so teams spent yesterday leveling out the slope so it could be used by the crawler.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

NASA announced that the rocket and crawler left the launch pad at 4:12 a.m. ET this morning, Saturday, July 2, and that it was scheduled to arrive at the building later this morning. You can watch the rocket’s progress either using the video embedded above or by heading to the Kennedy Space Center newsroom YouTube channel.

Related

“Once inside the VAB, teams will replace a seal on the quick disconnect of the tail service mast umbilical to address a liquid hydrogen leak detected during the wet dress rehearsal, along with planned forward work as the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft are readied for launch,” NASA wrote.

Following the wet dress rehearsal, the hope was that the rocket could launch on its first mission as early as August. This goal was confirmed to Ars Technica this week, with NASA’s senior exploration official Jim Free telling Ars that they are working toward a launch window of August 23 to September 6 for the Artemis I launch.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
After a long break, NASA suggests timing for next spacewalk
NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps (center) assists NASA astronauts Mike Barratt (left) and Tracy C. Dyson inside the Quest airlock.

NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps (center) assists NASA astronauts Mike Barratt (left) and Tracy Dyson inside the station's Quest airlock on the day of an incident involving Dyson's incident. NASA TV

If you look at the list of spacewalks that have taken place at the International Space Station (ISS), you’ll notice that only two have taken place in 2024, with the last one happening in June.

Read more
See the polar moon sites where NASA plans to land its astronauts
An artist’s concept of an Artemis astronaut deploying an instrument on the lunar surface.

NASA has updated its list of potential landing sites for the next human visit to the moon, which is planned for 2026. The Artemis III mission will see the first crewed lunar landing since the Apollo era, and the plan is for astronauts to explore the moon's South Pole region where there is thought to be water ice on the lunar surface.

NASA shared a list of 13 candidate landing locations for Artemis III in 2022, but has now updated its list to nine candidates. Some of these were on the list previously, while others have been added such as the Mons Mouton mountain and plateau, which is particularly interesting to scientists because the height of the mountain means that there are permanently shadowed regions nearby. These places, where sunlight never touches, are particularly good candidates when it comes to looking for water ice.

Read more
NASA scrubs Thursday’s launch of Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter moon
The Falcon Heavy rocket on the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

SpaceX and NASA have called off Thursday’s planned launch of the Europa Clipper mission due to Hurricane Milton, which is heading east toward Florida, home of the Kennedy Space Center.

“Once the storm passes, recovery teams will assess the safety of the spaceport and the launch processing facilities for damage before personnel return to work,” NASA said in a post on social media on Sunday, adding in another message: “Teams have secured the spacecraft in SpaceX’s hangar at NASA Kennedy.”

Read more