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NASA's massive moon rocket will roll out earlier than planned
It's rare that a spaceflight milestone occurs earlier than planned.
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen at sunrise atop a mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B, Monday, April 4, 2022. (Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
NASA will roll out its massive rocket for a flight around the moon earlier than planned.
The agency had been targeting Thursday (Aug. 18) for the Artemis 1 Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to make the slow trek out to Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B in advance of blasting off on Aug. 29. But on Monday (Aug. 15), NASA announced that the plan changed, with rollout moved up to Tuesday evening (Aug. 16). You can watch coverage of rollout beginning at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) courtesy of NASA.
"@nasa is targeting as soon as 9 pm EDT of Tuesday, Aug. 16 for rollout of @NASA_SLS ahead of a targeted Aug. 29 #Artemis I launch," agency officials wrote in a tweet.
The Artemis 1 stack will roll to the launch pad atop the Apollo-era Crawler-transporter 2. While the crawler and rocket will only travel 4 miles (6.4 kilometers), the journey will take eight to 12 hours, according to previous NASA statements.
