The transport journey to the launch pad for NASA’s massive SLS rocket that will have to return humanity to the moon as part of the international Artemis mission at night, began in the early hours of dawn in Italy, the first of which is scheduled for November 14. Transporting the rocket from the Assembly Building (Vab) to Launch Pad 39B will take about ten hours at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
At around 100 meters high and with an Orion capsule on top, moving the SLS (Space Launch System) is a delicate and slow procedure, so much so that it would take about 10 hours to cover the 6.4 kilometers that divides the Vab building to where the technicians were able to work and upgrade some of the rocket’s tools, such as the batteries and explosives systems in case of malfunction, to platform 39B which is scheduled to depart on 14 November. This is the fourth time the SLS has made this flight, the first two in March and June for some testing and the third in mid-August for the first launch attempt. After weeks of work, NASA executives decided to return the rocket to the building to complete the latest modernization work and secure it from the hurricane’s passage. The new transport will put the SLS in place and then begin on November 14 the Artemis-1 mission without astronauts that will serve as a rehearsal to get humanity around the moon again in 2024, then walk on its surface for a year or two after, after.
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