Skip to main content

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

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.

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.

“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.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
SpaceX needs good weather for Wednesday’s crewed launch. Here’s how it’s looking
SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon ready for the launch of Crew-10.

SpaceX and NASA are making final preparations for the launch of Crew-10 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, targeted for Wednesday, March 12.

As ever, the launch team needs decent weather conditions for the liftoff, or else the mission will be delayed until suitable conditions prevail. Folks heading to the Space Coast to witness SpaceX’s first crewed launch since September will also be eyeing the forecasts.

Read more
NASA to host first ever Twitch stream from International Space Station
NASA astronaut Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station.

The job of space agencies like NASA isn't only to research scientific topics and to push forward space exploration -- it's also to communicate with the public about that work, and to get them excited for space research. To that end, NASA frequently hosts events like astronauts in space answering questions from school children, collaborating with citizen science projects, or encouraging amateur astronomers and curious stargazers to participate in astronomical events. Now, the agency's latest push to engage young people is to go where many of them are: on Twitch.

NASA will host its first Twitch event from the International Space Station next week, in a move hoping to draw in a new audience interested in space science and research. The event will have NASA astronauts currently living on the space station talk about their life on board and the work that they're doing, and give Twitch viewers the opportunity to ask them questions.

Read more
Record-breaking five rockets to launch in 24 hours today
SpaceX launches a Starlink mission in 2020.

Today could see a new record for space flight, as five separate rocket launches are scheduled for one 24-hour period. The events involve four different providers and show the increasing pace of launches, covering missions including sending communications satellites into Earth orbit, creating short-duration microgravity environments for research purposes, and launching unknown payloads for governments.

The five launches today, Tuesday February 4, will be the highest number of launches in a single day if all go ahead as planned, as noted by Space.com. The first launch has already occurred, with SpaceX launching a Starlink mission from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 5:15 a.m. ET. This mission carries 21 Starlink satellites to add to SpaceX's communication network, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities.

Read more