Skip to main content

See the giant crawler that will carry NASA’s mega moon rocket to the pad

NASA is continuing preparations for the testing and eventual launch of its “mega moon rocket,” or Space Launch System. This rocket is designed to eventually carry astronauts back to the moon under the Artemis program, but first, it will be put through its paces in the uncrewed Artemis I mission.

This week, NASA announced that it was getting ready for the rollout of the rocket, in which the rocket is transported four miles from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. And if you’re wondering how exactly you transport a huge rocket that stands at 332 feet (98.1 meters) tall, then NASA has the answer for you: By using a massive crawling vehicle called the Crawler Transporter-2.

The  Crawler Transporter-2 at the doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).
Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida drove Crawler Transporter-2 on March 11, 2022, to the doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Soon, it will go inside the VAB where it will carry the Artemis I Moon rocket to launch pad 39B. NASA/Chad Siwik

“Earlier today, engineers and technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida drove Crawler Transporter-2, which will carry NASA’s Moon rocket to the launch pad, to the doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB),” NASA wrote on Friday, March 11. “Soon, the 6.6-million-pound crawler will go inside the VAB and slide under the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft placed on the Mobile Launcher. Technicians will finish up preparations to transport the rocket traveling at a top speed of 1 mph to Launch Complex 39B for a wet dress rehearsal test ahead of the Artemis I launch.”

Recommended Videos

To get the rocket ready for transport, NASA is retracting the 20 platforms which surround it and its Orion spacecraft. That way, it will be ready for the rollout which is scheduled for Thursday, March 17. The rocket will be taken to the launch pad and put through what is called a wet dress rehearsal. This is where everything is prepared as it would be for a real launch, and the rocket is filled with fuel. Then there will be a launch countdown, but the rocket engines won’t actually fire.

This is one of the final tests of the rocket to ensure it is ready for its Artemis I mission, which could go ahead as early as May this year.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
How to watch NASA’s first all-female spacewalk since 2023
Astronauts during a spacewalk at the ISS on March 23.

NASA is making final preparations for its first spacewalk since January. It’ll also be the first all-female spacewalk since November 2023 and only the fifth in NASA's history.

Astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers will be participating in the so-called “extravehicular activity (EVA)” on Thursday, May 1.

Read more
NASA astronaut lands back on Earth on his 70th birthday
A Soyuz spacecraft containing NASA's Don Pettit and two cosmonauts on its way back to Earth in April 2025.

Following a seven-month stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronaut Don Pettit and two Russian cosmonauts landed safely in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on Sunday local time. The touchdown was on the same day that Pettit, NASA’s oldest serving astronaut, turned 70.

The American astronaut departed the ISS on Friday with Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. 

Read more
NASA astronaut hopes for smooth ride home after his wild ride 22 years ago
NASA astronaut Don Pettit.

NASA astronaut Don Pettit is just a couple of days away from returning to Earth on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft after a seven-month stay at the International Space Station, making it the perfect time to revisit his astonishing account of his first Soyuz homecoming in 2003.

In the article, Pettit describes in vivid detail the extraordinary experience of hurtling through Earth’s atmosphere at five miles a second, and how malfunctions with Soyuz led to the flight home becoming a kind of test landing for a future crewed mission to Mars.

Read more